Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf is expected to resign later this week in a split at the top of the country's Western-backed government.
‘The president has already written his resignation letter and he is expected to announce it on the coming Saturday,’ a presidential spokesman said on Christmas Eve.
‘It is not good for me to predict or explain his reasons for resigning. President Yusuf will explain everything when he resigns.’
Earlier on Christmas Eve, Somalia's Prime Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled, who was appointed by the president last week, resigned, saying his appointment threatened to tear apart an already weak government.
Mr Yusuf sacked Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein following a row about new cabinet members, but parliament voted to reinstate Mr Hussein and countries in the region imposed sanctions against the president for being an obstacle to peace.
The split is being blamed for stalling UN-hosted peace talks and threatens to rupture the Western-backed administration at a time insurgents are camped on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.
