Target: Eritrea

[Castro]

Guess who has a bullseye on their back?

 

US accuses Eritrea of fueling deadly fighting in Somalia

 

The United States accused Eritrea Monday of providing funding, arms and training to insurgents battling Somali forces and allied Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu.

 

The State Department's top Africa official, Assistant Secretary of State Jendaye Frazer, also called for renewed ceasefire talks to end the deadliest fighting that Somalia has seen in years.

 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to discuss the situation Monday with her visiting Ethiopian counterpart, Seyoum Mesfin, officials said.

 

The fighting in Mogadishu pits heavily armed Ethiopian troops allied to the country's UN-recognized interim government against an Islamist militia known as al-Shabab and other insurgents supported by the city's dominant ****** clan.

 

Ethiopia intervened in Somalia, with tacit US support, in December to help oust an Islamist movement which had seized control of much of the country from the transitional federal government.

 

Since then, Ethiopian forces and the insurgents in Mogadishu have battled with tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons in fighting that has claimed over 1,000 lives, more than 250 of them in the past week, and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

 

Frazer, who visited Somalia early this month, singled out Eritrea on Monday for helping fuel the fighting in order to weaken Ethiopia, its regional arch rival.

 

"Eritrea has not been playing a constructive role in Somalia because they continue to fund, arm, train and advise the insurgents, especially the al-Shabab militia," she told reporters.

 

Frazer also said the Ethiopians were actively trying to negotiate a truce with the Hawiya clan, which has remained estranged from the interim government.

 

"We know that Ethiopia is very quietly working very closely with especially the Hawiya clan and the transitional federal government to negotiate a long-term ceasefire," she said, without elaborating.

 

"We're pushing for the ceasefire, and for those discussions to bear fruit so that they can end this violence," she said.

 

Frazer also called on the interim government to step up efforts to broaden its base to include more clans.

 

"It's very clear that the key to solving the situation in Somalia and stabilizing it is to have this inclusive dialogue," she said.

 

"Trying to get the transitional federal government to reach out to the various clans and sub-clans is a large part of our diplomacy," she said.

 

Frazer went on to accuse the Islamist militia of trying to undermine reconciliation efforts by targeting Hawiya clan leaders willing to talk to the government.

 

"They are actually trying to spoil this process of political dialogue and reconciliation," she said.

 

The US also backs the planned deployment of some 8,000 African Union peacekeepers to help stabilize Somalia.

 

But so far only about 1,500 Ugandan soldiers have arrived and their presence has made little difference.

AFP

[Castro]

Eritrea accused over Somalia fighting

 

 

April 24, 2007 08:10am

Article from: Agence France-Presse

 

THE United States accused Eritrea today of providing funding, arms and training to insurgents battling Somali forces and allied Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu.

 

The State Department's top Africa official, Assistant Secretary of State Jendaye Frazer, also called for renewed ceasefire talks to end the deadliest fighting that Somalia has seen in years.

 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to discuss the situation today with her visiting Ethiopian counterpart, Seyoum Mesfin, officials said.

 

The fighting in Mogadishu pits heavily armed Ethiopian troops allied to the country's UN-recognised interim government against an Islamist militia known as al-Shabab and other insurgents supported by the city's dominant ****** clan.

 

Ethiopia intervened in Somalia, with tacit US support, in December to help oust an Islamist movement which had seized control of much of the country from the transitional federal government.

 

Since then, Ethiopian forces and the insurgents in Mogadishu have battled with tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons in fighting that has claimed more than a thousand lives, more than 250 of them in the past week, and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

 

Ms Frazer, who visited Somalia early this month, singled out Eritrea today for helping fuel the fighting in order to weaken Ethiopia, its regional arch rival.

 

"Eritrea has not been playing a constructive role in Somalia because they continue to fund, arm, train and advise the insurgents, especially the al-Shabab militia," she said.

 

Ms Frazer also said the Ethiopians were actively trying to negotiate a truce with the Hawiya clan, which has remained estranged from the interim government.

 

"We know that Ethiopia is very quietly working very closely with especially the Hawiya clan and the transitional federal government to negotiate a long-term ceasefire," she said, without elaborating.

 

"We're pushing for the ceasefire, and for those discussions to bear fruit so that they can end this violence," she said.

 

Ms Frazer also called on the interim government to step up efforts to broaden its base to include more clans.

 

"It's very clear that the key to solving the situation in Somalia and stabilising it is to have this inclusive dialogue," she said.

 

"Trying to get the transitional federal government to reach out to the various clans and sub-clans is a large part of our diplomacy," she said.

 

Ms Frazer went on to accuse the Islamist militia of trying to undermine reconciliation efforts by targeting Hawiya clan leaders willing to talk to the government.

 

"They are actually trying to spoil this process of political dialogue and reconciliation," she said.

 

The US also backs the planned deployment of some 8000 African Union peacekeepers to help stabilise Somalia.

 

But so far only about 1500 Ugandan soldiers have arrived and their presence has made little difference.

Herald Sun

[Castro]

Ethiopians Cast Blame for Oil Attack

 

By ANITA POWELL

The Associated Press

Wednesday, April 25, 2007; 9:00 AM

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia blamed its longtime enemy Eritrea Wednesday for an attack in eastern Ethiopia on a Chinese-owned oil exploration field that killed 74 people. Eritrea issued a swift, angry denial.

 

In addition to those killed, at least six Chinese workers and a number of Ethiopians were taken hostage during Tuesday's dawn attack, for which the rebel ****** National Liberation Front claimed responsibility. The secessionist group formed from Ethiopia's minority Somalis has been linked to neighboring Eritrea.

 

"Hand-in-glove with the Eritrean government, which hates to see Ethiopia's development, the terrorist forces in the region have acted out this horrendous act of terror," Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry stated on its Web site Wednesday.

 

It called on the United Nations to take action against Eritrea.

 

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu denied the allegation, saying it was "a habitual nonsense statement" from Ethiopia.

 

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been strained since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. The two countries fought a two-year border war that ended in 2000.

 

Recently, the two nations have traded accusations over involvement in Somalia. Eritrea is accused of backing an increasingly violent Islamic insurgency fighting Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government.

 

Tuesday's attackers "were wearing Eritrean military uniforms," Abdullahi Hassan, president of the region in Ethiopia where the attack occurred, told The Associated Press. "We are sure. They were speaking the Eritrean language."

 

Hassan said the area of the attack is now under control. The attack took place early Tuesday in Abole, a small town 310 miles east of Addis Ababa in Somali Regional State and close to the Somali border.

 

Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau's Ethiopia operation, said nine Chinese oil workers and 65 locals were killed and that seven Chinese workers were kidnapped. But the group said it is only holding six Chinese workers.

 

China condemned the attack, the first against a foreign company in the Horn of Africa nation.

 

The bodies of the nine slain Chinese workers were being flown to the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday, before being repatriated to China, said Sun Qing, a Chinese embassy spokeswoman. She said negotiations were under way to win the release of the hostages and that all Chinese staff were being evacuated. She had no detail on whether the attackers were wearing Eritrean uniforms.

 

Ethiopian troops continued their search Wednesday for the rebel group and the hostages.

 

Tuesday's attack by more than 200 fighters lasted about an hour, and followed a warning the rebel group made last year against any investment in eastern Ethiopia's ****** area. The group said in a second statement posted on its Web site that 400 Ethiopian troops were killed or wounded in the attack. It said the Chinese fatalities were caused by explosions caused by munitions during the battle.

 

The statement added that the oil exploration field was attacked because ethnic Somalis were driven from their land by Ethiopian troops to make way for the facility.

 

In recent years, the ****** National Liberation Front has only made occasional hit-and-run attacks against government troops, making Tuesday's attack its most significant one. It has fought for the secession of the ****** region _ an area the size of Britain with 4 million people _ since the early 1990s.

 

The volatile Somali Regional State, as the ****** is known, "is not a safe environment for any oil exploration to occur. We urge all international oil companies to refrain from entering into agreements with the Ethiopian government," the front said in its claim of responsibility sent to the AP.

 

The ****** National Liberation Front described Tuesday's attack as "military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site," in the east of the country.

 

It did not give any details of casualties, but said they had "wiped out" three Ethiopian military units.

 

The official Xinhua news agency reported that the attackers fought 100 Ethiopian soldiers protecting the facility in a 50-minute gunbattle.

 

Ethiopia is not an oil-producing country. But companies such as the Chinese one and Malaysia's state-owned oil giant Petronas have signed exploration deals.

 

Xinhua said Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau had 157 Chinese and Ethiopian workers at the facility. The company is a division of the giant state-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. that began its operations in Ethiopia in May 2004, according to its Web site. It began work in the volatile Somali Regional State last year.

Washington Post