Austin Hedges

UN holds emergency session on Somalia's political crisis

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, who called for the closed briefing by U.N. special envoy James Swan, expressed serious concern about “the rising tensions between the prime minister and the president.” The meeting followedPresident Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's statement Thursday saying he suspended Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble’s power to hire and fire officials, the latest action in their increasingly divisive relationship. Woodward said the increasing tensions have implications for the electoral process and could lead to a constitutional crisis on top of the country’s other challenges from Al-Shabab extremists to famine, locusts and hunger.