Anti-president Somali soldiers reject calls to stand down

But some other opposition leaders, including the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops, rejected the agreement, raising the possibility that the standoff could continue. "We shall not go back to barracks until the former president hands over the entire security and command forces to the prime minister," Major Diini Ahmed, the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops, told Reuters late on Wednesday.

Somali forces who support the opposition say they will not relinquish control of parts of the capital until the president stands down, a spokesman for the loose alliance of opposition forces told Reuters.

Officials and some opposition leaders signed a ten-point agreement on Wednesday aimed at ending the months-long political standoff over a proposed two-year presidential term extension that has twice flared into violence in the capital. The agreement included demands that opposition-allied forces return to barracks within 48 hours, that soldiers be apolitical, and a promise that soldiers who declared support for the opposition would not be penalized.

"Forces should not be used for politics or interfered with," said the government's assistant information minister Abdirahman Yusuf al Cadaala. But some other opposition leaders, including the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops, rejected the agreement, raising the possibility that the standoff could continue.

"We shall not go back to barracks until the former president hands over the entire security and command forces to the prime minister," Major Diini Ahmed, the spokesman for the opposition-allied troops, told Reuters late on Wednesday. Ahmed said the agreement was "nothing to do with us."

The crisis began when Somalia failed to select a new crop of legislators in December who were supposed to elect a new president in February. In April, the lower half of parliament approved a two-year term extension for incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, commonly referred to by his nickname "Farmaajo"; although the Senate rejected it.

Opposition-backing forces refuse to accept Mohamed as president. "We are national forces. We are not attacking anyone. We are against dictatorship," Ahmed told Reuters.

On Saturday, lawmakers rescinded their approval of the term extension, but some in the opposition remain skeptical of the president's willingness to leave power and are pushing for him to immediately hand over power to his prime minister. "Farmaajo is against the constitution," said opposition Senator Muse Sudi Yalahow, as he presented camels to opposition-allied soldiers, whom he called "liberators".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)