{{Three officials have been arrested for mismanaging a scholarship scheme that sends Somali students to Turkey, Somalia’s education minister said Saturday, a sign that the fledgling government is committed to fighting the corruption that contributes to the country’s failed-state status.}}<\/p>\n
Minister Maryan Qasim Ahmed said the officials were arrested for offering the scholarships to undeserving students. <\/p>\n
The officials include the ministry’s former director general, who faced widespread accusations that he took bribes, Ahmed said.<\/p>\n
“We are aware of the arrest of the ministry’s former director general and two other persons after public complaints about fraud,” Ahmed said.<\/p>\n
A probe into the scam is under way, she said.<\/p>\n
Ranked as the world’s most corrupt country by Transparency International, Somalia is now recovering from decades of war and strife. <\/p>\n
Somalia held elections last year following the success of Somali and African forces in ousting Islamist extremists from the capital, Mogadishu, a city that is now coming to life for the first time in 20 years. <\/p>\n
The city government has repaired potholed streets and installed streetlights, and Western-style restaurants are opening, including near Mogadishu’s beach front, where men and women swim together without fear of punishment from militants.<\/p>\n
In a sign of the country’s progress, the United States last week officially recognized Somalia’s government for the first time in two decades. <\/p>\n
The U.S. hadn’t recognized a Somali government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.<\/p>\n
At his inauguration in September Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed to fight official corruption and to create “an effective justice system” that serves all Somalis.<\/p>\n
“I promise (that) my government will deliver a new democratic beginning,” Mohamud said at the time.<\/p>\n
The arrest of the education officials suggests that Mohamud’s government will at least try to combat the kind of graft that, along with prolonged war, contributed to Somalia’s reputation as a dysfunctional state.<\/p>\n
In a similar case of suspected corruption, Somalia’s chief justice has suspended three appellate court judges for unlawfully releasing a defendant charged with the killing of two foreigners who worked for the aid group Doctors Without Borders.<\/p>\n
“They were demoted and suspended because they have released a criminal without due process,” Chief Justice Aideed Ilko Hanaf said in a press interview.<\/p>\n
The suspect, Ahmed Salad Hassan, was charged with the murder of Belgian Philippe Havet and Indonesian Andrias Karel Keiluhu inside the aid group’s compound in Mogadishu in December 2011.<\/p>\n
Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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