MOGADISHU -- The new president of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, Dahir Riyale Kahin, has taken the oath of office to succeed Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, who died in a South African hospital hours earlier, state-owned radio Hargeisa said in a broadcast monitored here Saturday. Kahin was endorsed unanimously late Friday at an emergency meeting of the councils of elders and ministers, as well as Parliament, to assume the presidency of the country until a presidential election is held by the end of the year, the radio said. Egal died Friday morning at a Pretoria hospital from complications after surgery, AFP reported. Kahin, a member of the Gardabusi Clan predominant in western Somaliland, had been Egal's vice president since 1997. He was a high ranking military officer in the Somali government of General Mohamed Siad Barre which was toppled in January 1991, five months before Somaliland's unilateral declaration of independence from the rest of Somalia. A 10-member committee was also appointed to organize the burial ceremony of Egal, whose body is expected to return to the Somaliland "capital" Hargeisa from South Africa at the weekend, the radio said. Somalia's former northwest region, which has been an island of peace since Egal came to power there in 1993, has yet to be recognized by the international community.