Somali president arrives in Mogadishu - source
Source: Reuters
(adds details) MOGADISHU, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf entered the capital Mogadishu on Monday for the first time since taking office in late 2004, a government source said. If confirmed, Yusuf's arrival would cap a remarkable turn-around in the Somali capital, where Islamists ruled since June before being chased out just before the New Year by Ethiopian troops backing the interim government. "The president has arrived in Mogadishu. He is now resting at Nasa Hablod hotel. We are now preparing his house in Villa Somalia, where he will be staying," a government source who declined to be named, told Reuters. Villa Somalia is the former presidential palace of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose 1991 ouster as Somalia's last national president in 1991 triggered more than 15 years of anarchy. Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama "Jangali" declined to confirm the arrival, but said: "It is possible the president might arrive in Mogadishu today." Witnesses in the Kilometre Four area, a main entry point to Mogadishu, said they saw a convoy of eight SUVs accompanied by 15 technicals -- pick-up trucks with heavy guns -- five troop transport trucks and hundreds of soldiers. "President Abdullahi Yusuf has just arrived. He has just passed Kilometre 4. He is escorted by hundreds of government troops and has driven towards Villa Somalia," resident Abdikadir Abdullahi told Reuters by telephone from Kilometre Four.
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