20100925
reuters

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A moderate Islamist group that signed a power sharing deal with Somalia's government in March this year to help quell a raging insurgency has withdrawn from the administration, days after the prime minister quit.

Before joining the government, the Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca (ASWJ) militia group had pushed back al Qaeda linked al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels in central Somalia, and its entry into government was meant to help defeat the extremists.

Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, the spokesman of ASWJ told Reuters on Saturday the group had left the government after its failure to meet certain agreements reached when they agreed a power-sharing deal.

Their exit is likely to further weaken President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's push against the rebels, and herald more of the internal divisions that have beset the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and slowed government business to a crawl.

The group accused the administration of planning to abolish it and called for a reconciliation conference.

"From now on, we as Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca declare that the treaty we have signed with the government in Addis Ababa has ended," the spokesman Yusuf said.

"The government itself has caused that. We were not in Sharmarke's government or any other next government. We shall continue fighting against the al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam to keep our controlled areas peaceful."

Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke resigned on Tuesday, paying the price for the government's failure to rein the rebels, who have killed thousands of civilians. The lack of progress is threatening to topple the administration.