The Missing Someone

Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf has resigned - a move which adds to the chaos in the country as Ethiopian troops are to withdraw shortly.

Mr Yusuf’s resignation follows a power struggle with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, who parliament backed after Mr Yusuf tried to sack him.

Various Islamist and nationalist groups control most of southern Somalia.

Some experts say Mr Yusuf’s departure could make it easier to reach a peace deal with moderate Islamists.

The president had clashed in recent months with Mr Nur over attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Islamist-led armed opposition.

BBC Somali service editor Yusuf Garaad says the president’s departure has removed one obstacle to peace but it is unclear what happens next, especially if the government collapses altogether.

Mr Yusuf is reported to have flown out of Baidoa, where parliament is based, to his home region - the semi-autonomous area of Puntland in the north.

Under the constitution, speaker of parliament Aden Mohamed Nur becomes acting president until MPs elect within 30 days a new president, who will then nominate a new prime minister.

Mr Yusuf was chosen by MPs four years ago at the end of a long process that was supposed to bring peace to Somalia, which has not had an effective national government since 1991.

But government forces only control parts of the capital, Mogadishu, and the town of Baidoa.

Renewed fighting

Mr Nur - the prime minister Mr Yusuf tried to sack - appeared pleased with the president’s resignation, say a BBC correspondent in Mogadishu.

“We welcome the resignation of the President Abdullahi Yusuf as a democratic step forward taken by Somalia,” he said.

Meanwhile, a relatively new self-styled moderate Islamist group, Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, which seized two towns in central Somalia over the weekend, continued to fight militants from the hardline al-Shabab on Monday.

Bondage life

Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that Ethiopia had had nothing to do with Mr Yusuf’s departure and it would not affect plans for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia.

The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says no-one has publicly declared their candidature to succeed the president.

A weary-looking Mr Yusuf told MPs in Baidoa: “As I promised when you elected me on October 14, 2004, I would stand down if I failed to fulfil my duty, I have decided to return the responsibility you gave me.”

‘Obstacle to peace’

In his speech, broadcast on national radio, he said: “When I took power I pledged three things.

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