Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says the country is making a comeback. President Mohamud spoke ahead of the country’s July 1st Independence Day celebrations. As Somalia counts down to the day it gained self-rule 55 years ago, the President speaks candidly about how far Somalia has come, the political situation, the country’s capability to hold national elections in 2016 and the state of the economy. Here is his Q&A.

Q: Somalia’s Independence Day is around the corner. This year is significant because the country is looking to open a new page in 2016. Share with us your thoughts about the progress the country has made to date.

A: I must say the difficult area in Somalia was politics. How politics can progress in Somalia. Civil war ended long time ago. The insecurity due to anarchy has already subsided. We have one security issue, which is fighting against Al Shabaab. It was the decision of the government to establish interim administrations while on the other hand building a legal framework for the federation. The interim administration has emerged; the Somali government has facilitated bringing people together, making reconciliation happen and opening the dialogue space for discussing formation of the administrations. I am very glad most of the country now has politicians, leaders that are not national, leaders that are sub-national entity of the state. The remaining ones are getting shape, so that was a very difficult process, very time consuming, but the Somali people and the government have learnt from that process. Today we have established interim administrations and others are being established.