Fighting in the Somali parliament over forces re-deployment

A row took place in the Somali parliament in Nairobi after parliamentarians voted against a call made by President Abdullah Youssef calling for the deployment of peace keeping forces from the neighboring states to keep order in the country.

TV shots showed several parliamentarians throwing chairs at each other while others were beating by sticks, as many were seen bleeding after they were hit on the heads.

Parliamentarian Abdullah Ahmad who voted against a suggestion to deploy forces from Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti said that the parliament witnessed fighting because part of the parliamentarians were not pleased about the result of the vote.

He said that the angry parliamentarians destroyed the voting ballots when it was revealed that their proposal would fail, demanding the vote to be by raising hands.

Parliamentarians said that 156 members voted against the deployment of the forces against 55 out of 217 members who attended the session while 6 parliamentarians were absent.

The prime minister Ali Jeidi said that the voting was not correct because correct measures were not pursued, adding that one of the main priorities of his government is to bring back the government to Somalia.

The difference which led to these regrettable incident at the parliament comes from a proposal that the government receive forces from Arab and neighboring countries, with certain members stand against the idea of neighboring states.