New Somali Leader Seeks Outside Help

Former army Col. Abdullahi Yusuf was elected president of lawless Somalia on Sunday and immediately called for outside help to stabilize his broken country, widely seen as a haven for Islamic militants.

“Somalia is a failed state, and we have nothing,” Yusuf told lawmakers who elected him at a gathering in neighboring Kenya.

“We need [the international community] to stand by us and help us disarm our militias ... which are destabilizing the Somali people.”

Yusuf, seen by some as a no-nonsense character and a self-declared ally of Washington’s “war on terrorism,” said he would attempt to shepherd his nation of at least 8 million people to elections under a new constitution within five years.

The vote for president was held in Kenya because of a lack of security in Somalia, which is divided into warlord-controlled fiefdoms. Thousands of impoverished Somalis have been killed in 13 years of civil war. Yusuf won 189 votes against 79 for opponent Abdullahi Addou.

Somalia has had no government since 1991, when warlords overthrew strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and turned their guns on one another.

Yusuf served in the army under Barre, rising to the rank of colonel. In 1978 he formed the first group to oppose Barre, the Somali Salvation Defense Front, which was crushed by Barre. Yusuf then fled to Ethiopia.

Yusuf will nominate Somalia’s prime minister, who then will name a Cabinet. The members of the transitional parliament have an unwritten agreement to fill key government and legislative posts along clan lines.

Yusuf is a member of the Darod, one of Somalia’s four biggest clans. He is expected to choose a prime minister from another clan, the Hawiye, which controls Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

European officials are working behind the scenes on a proposal to give the new government $17.5 million.

The United Nations has estimated that at least $5 billion would be needed to rebuild Somalia over the long term.