Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has strongly rejected a report by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia that is critical of his administration.
The president termed the report, which was presented to the UN Security Council this week, as largely baseless and driven from words of Mogadishu streets.
"The bulk of the report has been gathered from the streets of Mogadishu," said President Ahmed. "It is not based on substantiated facts," he added.
UN Monitoring Group which was tasked to observe arms movement in war torn Somalia, asserted a widespread corruption and mismanagement within the Somali armed forces and government officials.
Close associates of President Ahmed, including Deputy Prime Minister who is also Minister for Fisheries, Abdurahman Haji Aden Ibbi, Minister for Women Fowzio Mahammed Sheikh and Minister for Constitutional and Federal Affairs, Madobe Nunow Mohamed were implicated in the sale of visas.
"Some things can be sold, but it is not all ministers who are engaged in this mal practices," remarked President Ahmed.
Both Nunow and Ibbi on their part termed the accusations as baseless.
Meanwhile, Somali President has cautioned about the charges against the World Food Programme and its Somali contractors, saying it may not help the needy in Somalia.
The UN report also states that Eritrea has not completely stopped aiding insurgents in Somalia as required by the council but appears to have scaled down its military assistance to Islamist insurgents.
Members of the U.N. S C expressed their desire to have an outside investigation of charges of widespread diversion of U.N. aid meant for the devastated population in the Horn of African.
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