SOMALIA – The Somalia’s second deputy Prime Minister was appointed as the new head of South West State on Wednesday by the country’s Prime Minister, following the resignation of the previous regional president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagaren.

“The Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia, Mr. Hamza Abdi Barre, through a decree he issued, appointed Mr. Jibril Abdirashid Haji Abdi as the Acting Leader of the South West State of Somalia,” a government spokesperson said.

The appointment comes days after Somali federal troops, backed by local forces, secured full control of the state’s administrative capital, Baidoa, prompting Laftagaren’s resignation after nearly eight years in office.

The South West State administration and the federal government in Mogadishu have been at odds over Laftagaren’s mandate and a constitutional overhaul approved by the federal parliament.

Haji is expected to lead the region on an interim basis, paving the way for planned one-person, one-vote elections in the state.

Baidoa, a strategic and economically important city about 246 kilometers (152 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, hosts offices of the African Union and the United Nations.

Senior federal officials, including Parliament Speaker Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, Foreign Minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali and Religious Affairs Minister Mukhtar Robow, are in Baidoa to oversee the political transition.