( CNN ) -- War-torn Somalia moved a step closer to stability this September after picking its first president elected on home soil in decades . Political newcomer Hassan Sheikh Mohamud , an academic and activist who has also worked for the United Nations and other organizations , was sworn in the capital Mogadishu after defeating incumbent president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed . The milestone vote was hailed by the international community as a sign of improving security in a nation plunged into chaos after years of vicious civil hostilities . Despite the move toward a more permanent government , the new president faces an uphill battle to rebuild the country and restore its shattered economy and crumbling infrastructure . Even though insurgents have fled Mogadishu and guns have fallen silent , portions of Somalia still remain lawless as large parts of the country are under the control of militants , such as the al Qaeda-linked group Al Shabaab . Distinguished Somali professor Ahmed Ismail Samatar , who also ran for president in the recent elections and is now a member of the new parliament , says the country 's new leader is facing `` heavy challenges that need to be lifted . '' `` He [ Mohamud ] cares about the country , '' says Samatar , leader of the HiilQaran political party . `` And [ there is ] the possibility that his leadership will then bring a shift in gear and therefore moving towards that future that needs to be born . '' Read related : Somali women defy danger to write history . Somalia may have been brought to its knees by decades of war but in the 1960s , after it threw off the chains of colonialism to gain its independence , it was a model of democracy , says Samatar . `` It 's the first place in the continent , in sub-Saharan Africa , in which the head of the state will be defeated in parliamentary transparent elections and he will hand the keys ... to the victor and tell the nation that democracy is a precious thing . This is in 1967 -- the first sub-Saharan African head of state to be defeated in an election and then hand peacefully the order of the state and the institutions to the new president . '' Somalia was formed through the union of newly independent territories British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960 . Aden Abdullah Osman Daar was Somalia 's president until the 1967 election when Abdirashid Ali Shermarke became the country 's second leader . But in 1969 he was assassinated ; a military coup immediately followed and that regime ruled for more than 20 years . In January 1991 , dictator Maxamed Siyaad Barre was overthrown in a civil war waged by clan-based guerrillas and warfare continues to this day . `` No African country has lost so much since the coming of independence in the continent in the 1960s , '' says Samatar . Read related : Fertile territory for Al-Shabaab in chaos of Somalia . Samatar is the founding dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College , in Minnesota -- the state that 's estimated to have the largest Somali population in the United States . His topics range from globalization and the world 's political economy to African issues , specifically those of his home country . After running for president , he has now returned to Macalaster College -- but as a member of Somalia 's parliament he continues to remain engaged in the rebuilding of the country . `` I am driven because after 30 years of studying I have seen enough of the truth in front of me through scholarship , '' he says . `` What ails Somali people and how they might overcome those problems . '' Samatar says that 15 years ago , it was hard to envision a bright future for Somalia . `` Today , though , it 's a different story , '' he adds . `` There are blades of hope growing among these cobblestones of difficult history , '' he explains , noting that Somalis are now exhausted by the ongoing war and civil strife . `` They are absolutely tired of a particular kind of religious Islamist militancy that wants to destroy the culture ; they are tired of warlords who hijack particular opportunities for their own self interests ... and destroy what it 's in place . `` So that exhaustion brings a certain kind of yearning for a new time and that 's hope . They have had enough of this and they want something different . ''
In September , Somalia elected its first stable central government in decades . Professor Ahmed Ali Samatar says the new government is ' ` ` heavy challenges '' Samatar is a professor at Macalester College in Minnesota , U.S . He ran for president in the recent Somali elections and is now a member of parliament .