♪ >> hello again, the headlines. 38 people have been killed in a stampede at a religious festival in israel. people gathered for a holiday. >> teamshelicopters to hospital. in addition, they are currently transports from the number one trauma centers. >> the palestinian president

postponed the parliamentary elections next month, with hamas rejecting the decision, calling it a coup. brazil has become the second country to surpass 400,000 apps related to covid-19 after the u.s. health officials warned that the daily toll could remain high due to slow vaccinations and loose covid restrictions. coronavirus cases and deaths across india have reached a new high as the country grapples with a second wave. millions of people turned out to vote for regional elections in west, and that sparked fears the state may become the new epicenter. u.s. president joe biden in the state of georgia promoting his economic plan i see marks 100 days in office. he has attended a drive in rally in duluth where he pitched his vision to grow the economy, including investing trillions

and jobs, infrastructure, and education. pres. biden: it is only been 100 days, but i have to tell you i've never been more optimistic about the future of america. choosing hope over fear, light over darkness, and we are working. we are working again. we are dreaming again. we are discovering again and we are leading the world again. you are proving, democracy can deliver the people. >> police are reporting a renewal of gun fire on their southern border just after a cease-fire agreement. six people have been killed in clashes since wednesday, and the border is disputed and the violence broke out at a water reservoir that both countries claim as their own. those are the headlines on al jazeera. "inside story is coming up next.

♪ >> somalia's president to back down from extending his term by two years. but there is no clear path to elections and the political crisis is striking turmoil. this is "inside story." ♪ >> hello and welcome to the program. when the somali president's term expired, he tried to extended. but after backing down, he has

called her preparations to withhold elections, but they have not been able to agree on how that vote should go ahead. rival factions have been fighting in the capital mogadishu. and the armed group said it was behind a car bomb that killed at least three people outside of the national prison's authority headquarters. it is feared it could lead to new conflict as catherine sawyer reports. >> the president's address to than -- the nation was stopped, but he accused opposition leaders of politicizing and grab power, and some foreign countries of meddling in somalia's internal affairs. but he also pushed back on the controversial laws to extend his time in office by two years.

>> the federal governments of somalia has always believed and still sees dialogue, compromise, negotiation, and returned to the discussion table as the only viable options while honoring this september 17, 2020 agreement and recommendations on the election model. i call upon all of the signatories of the agreement to come together immediately for discussions. >> the september agreement says the country will hold indirect elections, and members of parliament will be chosen who in turn vote in a president. talks between the government, leaders from the federal states and others have stalled, with different sides accusing each other of derailing the process. some honorees with the president's reversal does not change the political contest over management of election and mistrust between politicians. >> there needs to be a

negotiator between the different groups and adjudicator who will tell who is wrong and who is right depending on the terms. the u.n. has failed to do that, so unless the african union or someone else can act as the mediator, i don't think they will come together to be able to agree on a path forward. >> tensions have been building for a while. the crisis has drawn in the military and police force, and it is said to be divided along political lines. government and opposition forces, their report is the opposition forces hold in several different parts of the city. people have been fleeing their homes, fearing more conflicts. but some are hopeful the president's message will the escalate tensions -- the escalate tensions. and politicians will find a middle ground to hold elections soon. >> the unrest is the second bow

of violence over the bid to stay in power. many fear that the dispute will further divide the armed forces that belong to different clans. the president belongs to one clan, and the opposition leaders belongs to another. there is a growing concern that there could be a return of clients based violence. the nation has not had disabled central government for a while. i knew internationally back a government was installed in 2012 which is struggled beyond mogadishu. ♪ >> let's bring in our guests in mogadishu, a member of parliament and former deputy prime minister. a cofounder of lead now, a somali women's political pressure group. and a security analyst and former inspector general of

somalia's defense ministry. why did the president finally give up on extending his term? was it because of mounting pressure from the international community and domestic groups? >> first, i will say to you, thank you for giving me this opportunity to welcome everybody, and say what i think it's actually to be told to somali people. i also work for my two sisters. what i am telling you is according to the relations of the country, it says that when the presence sees the situation, the members of the federal status and also the prime minister, that is when he actually decided to come back

and actually ask to come on saturday, he would inform us the current situation of the country. according to the situation of the country, the somalis are suffering, and with the exclusive representation of the people. according to that, to come back to the parliament and tell us, what he meant with its, and at the same time, to think of the well-being of his own people. that is the kind of person that is supposed to help the somali people. >> there have been clashes in

mogadishu the past few days between forces loyal to president farmaajo, and those loyal to the opposition forces. how tense is the situation now? >> there have been clashes but now the situation is calm with the political momentum as mentioned by my colleague, there have been meetings between the for this event to nullify the extension and it was welcomed by both the president and prime minister and now we see the prime minister going to meet the parliamentarians with a session on saturday. that calmed the tensions of violence, but unless there is a long-term political agreement and a way forward, this situation can create a lot of challenges going forward. >> just talking about the

potential for instability. how much has the political stalemate in somalia created uncertainty for the somali people and also the security forces? >> somali is in a state right now where we have never been politically and also from a security perspective. the current situation rising from the political state ma -- stalemate resulting in a legal extension, and i correct myself, it is not the parliament, it is the lower house that signed it and passed it to the president to sign, and has brought us to the brink of war and also, we have seen clashes between the two forces as you have mentioned. at this point in 2021 four somalia to be threatened -- for somalia to be threatened is quite saddening for most of us.

and to see hundreds of thousands of people flee the capital at this time has also been horrifying to watch. i want to go back to the question you asked earlier, the pressure of the international community and at home give rise to the president coming back and nullifying the illegal extension -- absolutely. and there has been mounting pressure both and the international community, internally with the security that has been going on, but als with the government actions, the prime minister calling for cease-fire, the federal states members rejecting the illegal extension. all of those added together all and all has pushed the president to retract the extension. parliament itself has no mandate, the president has no mandate.

so extensions, we are all hopeful that the current political negotiations will yield fruits, and move the countries towards an election and away from violence. >> president farmaajo has said he will appear before parliament on saturday to gain their endorsement for the electoral process that was agreed upon. he is talking about the september 17 agreement that had been cobbled together last year and was later fell apart. do you think that could actually get done, will the lower house of parliament agree to this when he appears before them? >> definitely, yes. in the first place, that solution has been met and authorized by the counselor ministers, and they actually submitted to the parliament --

we translated it into a law, and the president actually signed a degree on september 17. that actually is a law being signed by the president is the most important one that everybody is supposed to accept it. but what i am understanding is people do notonsider this, and why actually almost all of these people free from this sicountry, actually created allf this chaos. -- fleeing from this country, actually creating all of this chaos. but if he comes to ask the parliament again, immediately the parliament will discuss, and to bet on it, and make it go back to that in september 17. which actually used to be the political agreement with the

member states of somalia, all of them, during the 1, 2, 3, 4 -- it was not kept in their own way. it was sent to the parliament. but the time they center that the parliament, the president -- they were actually giving authority to use that degree to actually go back again and again and again. but the time the person comes there, yes, explain why they are actually coming back and the reason, because it is actually in a situation according to what we have to actually count the people, and at the same time, we actually have to -- repress that

low into the previous low. we will accept actions on the 17th of september unconditionally. >> there are opposition forces who abandon positions in other parts of the country, and these are frontline positions in order to travel to mogadishu and take up positions there. there are reports that al-shabaab has taken over one town as a result of this vacuum that has developed. how much concern is there the al-shabaab will further exploit any security vacuum and make more gdens going forward? jihan: i don't like to call out position forces because at the end of the day, the somali security forces, they are all no matter which wing or the faction

between them. yes, as you noted, somali forces were all trained to fight the enemy, that is al-shabaab. al-shabaab is still there and it will be there until the somali security forces unite. yes, we know many forces have left in the cases, and that will have a long-term and short-term impact, not only for security, but also for the trust of the civilians that now the forces have advocated. always when you are fighting counterinsurgency, you need to win the heart and minds of civilians that you are protecting. the future operations are challenged that our security forces will have. not only is the challenge combating al-shabaab, but the broken chain of command, any

security force. once that is challenged, it brings an issue. yesterday, you had seen the prime minister summoned all of security officers and there was a meeting with an attack here in mogadishu. the main priority right now should be for the security forces to be prioritized and combating al-shabab. >> this is all fairly complicated. i want to look again at the september 17 agreement that had been cobbled together and then fell apart. this is called for the election of federal lawmakers through indirect elections. it had been agreed to but then it fell apart and the election was delayed because of disputes between federal government and different states, along with the opposition. what has to happen now for an agreement for the election going

forward. even if the lower house of parliament agrees, that does not solve the problem, does it? >> it really does not. the fundamental problem right now is the lack of trust between stakeholders. that is due to clear violations that we have seen in the past six to eight months. obviously, the agreement was signed by the president and all of the other stakeholders. but there were some challenges with in how to implement that, and that stemmed to the total collapse, followed by attacks that were, launched on political opposition that further -- the condions. fundamentally right now, it is

how do we build trust a -- among the different stakeholders, and who needs to be a part of that discussion. obviously for the last six to eight months, we have been having just the president and leaders, and we don't need to know exactly. as we are aware, i think that is probably the saving grace right now that september 17 has, so that somebody and partial could actually facilitate a dialogue and move the country towards an election. >> just talking about the fact

that the aau would be sending an envoy to facilitate dialogue. i note that the president farmaajo has called for dialogue to happen. are we going to see dialogue? who from your perspective is going to be mediating in any potential negotiations going forward? >> this is actually supposed to be a small he led dialogue -- somali led dialogue. and this is traditionally always, we have been doing over the last couple of years. if you see the somali people, mostly, they do not come out actually and just talk. they talk totally and thoughtfully. that especially going to come, but the further member states

and the federal republic, maybe he will consult separately each one, consult and discuss. but somalis will sit down together, but i would like to remind everybody one thing that is very important. this political agreement has been amended a couple of times. when it was first established was by the council of ministries last year, and it was brought to the parliament later into the law. it was a close model of election. that was actually proposed by the president himself, and then by the time he had sent out the parliamentarians projected, agreed with them, and he signed the decree. by the time he did that, we went

back to what we call in-depth election. the president and the prime minister actually sitting with them. by the time they agreed, we accepted animated into law. if you remember, that law is actually a low number. but by his excellency, the president, number 30. the same thing is actually happening. but still the september 17 agreement, i don't know how it will work, we have to accept it because some of them i actually insist saying something that is

ridiculous -- i'm sorry to interrupt you. we are starting to run out of time, and i want to go over to jihan and ask another question. given the level of distrust among politicians right now, what happens next? what has to happen for the political dispute to get resolved and what happens if it does not get resolved? >> we first wait for the president to meet the parliament and drafted that, it would be indicated, there has been always talks between the smalley leadership, and there is a redline between the two sides. i hope this time, the mediation, or a special envoy coming in, there has to be a real

negotiations or mediation and dialogue, and political agreement. if that this not happen, the level of uncertainty is very high. there is a lot of hope that is being lost, and until now, people have been out of their houses. you can imagine the progress that is made, we are to railing from it, meaning the rebuilding of security forces. th economic reforms and the overall reform process. >> i am sorry to interrupt you and i do want to ask hodan, one last question. you heard people talk about fleeing their homes, and you mentioned that earlier. let me ask you, how scared are cilians right now? hodan: there was a sigh of relief by civilians, but we

are very pleased right now that thin are calm and tensions are low. the potential for violence is very eminent. that is unless we try a political agreement. i want to make an overall comment around what we need to do as tamales. this has to be a small he owned, somali led process in terms of finding a political solution. we need to understand that in this age, somalis are no longer interested in one-man rule or one-man show, and that has been clear in the last particular one week, there is a limit to the silence and sort of not reacting -- citizens reacting against the inability to actually go to elections. everyone has a right to their views, but we don't have the right to create alternative facts.

the facts are that smalley must hold elections every four years and those elections have to be consensus and sort of everybody agreeing to the outcomes of that a -- election. we cannot risk any opportunities to backslide into the years of violence. i want to call on everyone to continue on the dialogue and make sure that the citizens, not just in mogadishu, but all of us in somalia and outside of the state feel that they can compete. 80% of the country is facing drought. there are serious challenges that we cannot afford to have this political conundrum continue. >> we have run out of time but we have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much for all of our guests. and thank you for watching. you can see this in all of our

previous programs again by visiting our website, aljazeera.com and go to our facebook page, facebook.com/a.j.insidestory. bye for no ♪

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