US-backed Ethiopian troops are withdrawing from neighboring Somalia. During the pullout two Ethiopian soldiers were reported killed in an explosion after running over a roadside bomb. The pullout represents a major failure for US policy in Africa.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Many Somalis resent the presence of the Ethiopian troops
Ethiopian military forces have begun pulling out of Somalia after two years helping the transitional government fight insurgents.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's spokesman said the withdrawal would take several days.
A convoy of about 30 Ethiopian vehicles loaded with troops and equipment left the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Hours earlier a roadside bomb killed two Ethiopian soldiers and a number of civilians died when troops opened fire.
"The withdrawal of our troops from Somalia has entered the implementation phase," Bereket Simon, special adviser to the Ethiopian premier, told Reuters news agency.
"The withdrawal is not an event that can be completed within a day. It will be finalised as quickly as possible."
Ethiopia has suffered a steady drain on its resources and a constant trickle of casualties but has received much blame and scant praise for its deployment, the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt reports from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Bomb attack
About 3,400 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers from the African Union in Somalia are taking up positions vacated by the Ethiopians.
Witnesses say the start of Friday's withdrawal passed without incident as a convoy of trucks loaded with troops, mattresses and other equipment left Mogadishu.
A long column of vehicles left the capital for the small town of Afgoye, south-west of the capital, on the road to Baidoa and the border.
But at least four civilians died earlier in the day when Ethiopian troops on patrol opened fire after two of their number died in a roadside blast at a busy junction in the south of the capital.
"A bomb exploded near a group of Ethiopian soldiers at the K4 crossroads," Somali police colonel Ali Hasan told AFP news agency.
"There were many civilian victims."
Addis Ababa announced late last year that it would fully withdraw from Somalia by the first days of 2009.
There are fears the withdrawal of the 3,000-strong Ethiopian force could lead to a power vacuum and that violence will continue despite a peace deal between Somalia's transitional government and one of the main opposition factions.
Others say the pullout, together with this week's resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf, could make it easier for a new government to be formed, including moderate Islamist forces.
The president's critics had accused him of obstructing of a peace deal with the Islamist-led armed opposition.
One hard-line opposition group, al-Shabab, seen as key to any prospect of a lasting peace, is snubbing the idea of power-sharing and has said Somalia risks a new civil war.
Our correspondent says its involvement in Somalia has not been a happy one for Ethiopia.
The first push, at Christmas 2006, went like clockwork. Opposition melted away before the Ethiopians and the transitional government was saved from imminent collapse.
But our correspondent says that the government has not managed to use the time the Ethiopians bought it to establish a soundly based administration while the insurgency has revived in a more extreme form.
Government forces only control parts of Mogadishu and the town of Baidoa.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991.
Heavy explosion kills Ethiopian soldiers
1/2/2009 9:45:00 AM
Shabelle: SOMALIA
MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network)-At least two Ethiopian soldiers have been killed after heavy landmine explosion targeted to the Ethiopian troops occurred at around Three Biano building near Maka Al-mukarama street in the Somali capital Mogadishu early on Friday morning, witnesses told Shabelle radio
The explosion has occurred when the Ethiopian soldiers were making search operations over there and killed two of their soldiers but after the blast the Ethiopian troops have deliberately opened fire to the people and killed at least seven people who were all civilians near where landmine explosion occurred.
''Big blast occurred at our neighborhood around Maka Al-mukaram road near Three Biano residence which the Ethiopian troops had a military base and two Ethiopian soldiers died in that blast but after the explosion the Ethiopian troops have opened fire to the Somali civilians and killed more Somali civilians there,'' one witnesses said.
After the explosion more other extra Ethiopian and government soldiers have arrived at the scene where the explosion occurred and made search operations there and halted the movement of the people and BL transportations on that road.
This is not the first blast targeted to the Ethiopian soldiers which causes more casualties but is part of Landmine explosions and other mortar shell attacks those are always targeted the Ethiopian and the other foreign troops by the Somali Islamist Insurgents who are against the presence of the foreign troops and government policy.
Shabelle Media Network
US fails to break Somali Islamists
By Martin Plaut
BBC News
The Islamists, bolstered by powerful al-Shabaab hardliners, have regrouped
The Ethiopian army is preparing to leave Somalia almost two years after it invaded to oust Islamists who had taken control of large areas of the country.
The Ethiopians are withdrawing without having broken the power of what Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described in 2006 as the leaders of the jihadist movement, responsible for "terrorist outrages".
But the Ethiopian departure also marks a reverse for US President George W Bush's policy in the Horn of Africa.
It was the bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by al-Qaeda in 1998 - attacks that left hundreds dead and thousands wounded - that transformed Washington's approach towards the Horn of Africa.
America was convinced that Somalia, having been without a government since 1991, was an ideal conduit through which al-Qaeda could advance into the region from the Arabian peninsular.
At first, the US response was cautious, with memories of its previous intervention in Somalia in 1993, when the dead bodies of its troops were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in an incident made famous by the film Black Hawk Down.
But after President Bush came to power in January 2001, all this changed.
In 2002, Washington established what was called the Combined Task-Force, Horn of Africa. Based in Djibouti, its 1,700 troops were there to fight terrorism in the region.
A year later, Washington allocated $100m (£70m) to an East African Counter-Terrorism initiative, described as an inter-agency task force working across the region.
But it was after 2005 that the United States really became directly involved in Somalia.
'Extremists'
Concerned about the rise of the Union of Islamic Courts, America supported the creation of the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.
This brought together a group of Somali warlords who aided the US by snatching alleged al-Qaeda operatives taking refuge in Somalia.
The US is reported to have paid the warlords around $150,000 a month to support these operations.
In June 2006, the Islamic Courts took power in Mogadishu and attempted to reach an accommodation with Washington.
This failed after hardliners in the Courts movement declared holy war against Ethiopia, following Addis Ababa's incursions into Somalia.
The senior US envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said publicly that the Islamic Courts were controlled by members of al-Qaeda.
"The top layer of the Courts are extremists. They are terrorists," she said.
Despite this, Washington attempted to prevent a full-scale Ethiopian invasion.
General John Abizaid was sent to Addis Ababa in 2006 to warn Prime Minister Meles that an invasion would be disastrous. It will become Ethiopia's Iraq, he is reported to have said.
The warning was brushed aside, and Ethiopian troops went in, driving the Islamists out of Mogadishu.
Failed strategy
Whatever Washington's misgivings, there is little doubt that once Ethiopia was committed to an invasion, the US provided intelligence, military targeting and logistical support to Ethiopian forces in Somalia.
Ethiopia managed to install the internationally-recognised, but weak Transitional Federal Government.
At first, it appeared as if the strategy had succeeded. The Islamists were routed and continued to be harassed by Ethiopian forces.
But the Islamists, bolstered by some of the most powerful hardliners in al-Shabaab, regrouped and fought back.
The US military attempted to hit the hardliners whenever they emerged - using aircraft, warships and special forces to attack al-Shabaab on at least five occasions.
But the strategy has failed to break the hardliners.
When Ethiopia invaded, al-Shabaab had around 600 fighters. Today, intelligence sources suggest they number between 2,000 and 3,000.
Washington has said little about its covert war in Somalia, but it has little to show for years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars.
With Somalia now without a president or an effective parliament, and with the Islamists stronger than before Ethiopia invaded, American policy towards the Horn appears to have run into the sand.
Government Soldiers kill Radio Shabelle’s reporter
1/1/2009 10:37:00 AM
Shabelle: SOMALIA
AFGOI (Sh. M. Network) –Government soldiers have killed Radio Shabelle’s Hassan Mayow Hassan in Afgoi district 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Mogadishu, his father and witnesses said on Thursday.
Mayow Hassan, the deceased journalist’s father told Shabelle that the government soldiers based in Afgoi shot and killed his son.
"They used to accuse him that he is supporting the Islamist insurgents and threatened to kill him before," his father said.
Eyewitnesses told Shabelle the government soldiers called the journalist and shot him on the head.
The deceased journalist has been Shabelle Media Network’s correspondent since 2006.
He is the first journalist killed in the New Year 2009 and at least ten journalists have been killed in Somalia for the last two years.
Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. Media houses have been chronically shut down by the authorities and reporters, Somali and foreign, have been routinely kidnapped by armed groups.
Shabelle Media Network
No comments:
Post a Comment