NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia’s president nominated a humanitarian administrator and former police colonel Thursday to become the next prime minister of the troubled Horn of Africa nation.
Nur Hassan Hussein, who spent much of the past 20 years at the Somali Red Crescent Society, was praised as a neutral and respected leader. But it remained unclear if his selection by President Abdullahi Yusuf would do much to appease anti-government clans in Mogadishu, the capital, still waging a civil war.
Hussein, 68, has been secretary-general of the Somali Red Crescent, where he helped rebuild hospitals and provide emergency health services. Dividing his time between Nairobi and Mogadishu, Hussein twice escaped apparent assassination attempts in the late 1990s when militants grew angry over his handling of a 1998 abduction of 10 Red Crescent workers.
His nomination was formally submitted to Somalia’s parliament, which is expected to approve it today.
Hussein pledged to restore peace and work toward reconciliation of Somalia’s warring factions.
Somalia has been without a fully functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Siad Barre.
