UN official says Somalia is no longer a failed state

Somalia is no longer a failed state but a recovering fragile country, the top UN official for war-torn Somalia has said.
In the last three years the country has stabilized but there is still a lot of work to do, Nicholas Kay, the outgoing representative for the UN Secretary General in Somalia, told The Associated Press.
"The country is the past two-three years has come together quite significantly. It is both politically stable and developed as well," he said.
Somalia's Islamic extremist insurgents, al-Shabab, will not succeed in undermining the progress being made but the prospect of al-Shabab elements pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group is a real concern, Kay said.

Somalia has been torn by decades of conflict since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre by warlords who then turned on each other. Somalia had transitional administrations from 2004 but it did not have a functioning central government until the 2012 election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, said Kay.
Somalia's weak UN-backed government is struggling to rebuild the country but insecurity caused mainly by al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida-linked, remains its greatest challenge.

Kay says the political process in Somalia is successful with political leaders of the country engaging in political dialogue and negotiations with each other.

"These are not armed warlords fighting each other on a clan basis," Kay said. "They are presidents of interim regional administrations who are willing to sit and talk than use a barrel of a gun. In so, they are contributing to peace in the country, not to the fragmentation of the state as in the old days,"
Kay said the parliamentary and presidential elections that are set for 2016 will take place and he expects leaders to respect the constitutional term limit of four years after they made firm commitments to do so. Somali leaders are currently discussing how elections will be held.