Middle East Economic Survey

VOL. LII

No 6

9-Feb-2009

SOMALIA

Somalia Elects New President, Piracy Attacks Continue

Somalias transitional parliament elected moderate Islamist leader Shaikh Sharif Ahmad as the war-torn countrys new president on 31 January, as part of a UN-brokered plan to try and form a unity government. Shaikh Sharif succeeds the deeply unpopular 'Abd Allahi Yusuf, who resigned last month. A former school teacher who was elected chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and...