{{The President of Somalia, Hassan Sheik Mohamud has been named in the Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people, 2013.}}
His nomination hinges on his efforts for promoting policies that promote unity and reconciliation over clan-based politics in Somalia.
President Paul Kagame wrote a letter to President Hassan Sheik Mohamud congragulating him upon his achievements;
“Emerging from the presidential contest of September 2012, Somalia’s Hassan Sheik Mohamud is discarding destructive clan-based politics in favour of anticorruption measures and national reconciliation as well as embracing vital security-sector and economic reforms.”
Somalia has been torn apart by two decades of civil war, mainly fuelled by clan-based conflicts with several warlords as well as organised crime such as activities of pirates in the Gulf of Aden and domestic terrorists of Al Shabab who are reportedly linked to global terrorism group Al-Qaeda.
President Kagame noted that despite a 17,000-strong AU force having finally helped to restore security in Somalia, its President still has a tough task ahead to rebuild his country.
“Almost 20 years of rebuilding in Rwanda has taught us that there is no definitive manual for leading nations through and beyond debilitating conflict. President Mohamud is faced with the difficult task of balancing much needed international assistance with asserting Somalia’s right to govern itself,” Kagame says.
“There should be no illusions about the challenges that come with governing a nation torn apart by two decades of civil war.”
President Mohamud has been named in the magazine’s 100 most influential people, this year, along with several other world leaders, artists, and icons including US President Barack Obama, American artiste and entrepreneur Jay Z, and Taliban shooting victim Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl advocating for girls and women’s education.
The list also includes Malawi’s first and Africa’s second female President, Joyce Banda, and Egypt’s Bassem Youssef.
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