Ethiopia says troops to stay longer in Somalia

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Ethiopia says troops to stay longer in Somalia

Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:53pm GMT Print | Single Page [-] Text [+]

Last June Somalia's feuding leaders agreed to extend the mandate of a transitional government for a year rather than hold elections, a move sought by Uganda which has peacekeepers stationed in the anarchic state.

 

The mandate for Somalia's latest administration was meant to expire in August 2011 but President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader, and speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, who covets the top job, had been at loggerheads over what should happen then, and agreed to defer elections.

 

Weakened by internal divisions and financial constraints, the rebels have surrendered territory in Mogadishu and across central and southern Somalia in the past few months.

 

Ethiopian forces captured the rebel stronghold of Baidoa in southern Somalia in February having seized Baladwayne from the militants on New Year's Eve.

 

In May, AU and Somali government troops secured an aid corridor between Mogadishu and a former rebel stronghold close to the capital, wresting control of a vital strip of land believed to hold around 400,000 people displaced by conflict.

 

By the end of the month, Somali and Kenyan forces had captured the rebel stronghold and strategic town of Afmadow, though the militants claimed they retreated.

 

Seizing Afmadow was considered a crucial step in the Kenyan drive towards the southern port city of Kismayu, the hub of al Shabaab operations, about 120 km (75 miles) away.

 

In areas they have vacated, the militants have resorted to guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks, launching grenade attacks and using suicide bombers.

 

The rebel group has waged a bloody five-year campaign to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

 

It continues to hold swathes of central and southern Somalia but is being squeezed out of some areas by Kenyan and Ethiopian troops.

 

Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Louise Ireland)

[Somalia]

Suddenly no one cares.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Ethiopian military to remain in war-torn Somalia until government formed

 

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopian forces will stay in Somalia until an elected government is set up and takes over from the interim administration, State Communications Minister Shimeles Kemal told reporters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

 

Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia is its second since 2006. Its forces withdrew in January 2009 after pushing the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu, and later becoming bogged down in a guerrilla war with Islamic militants.

 

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s government is supposed to hold elections and finish its transitional rule by Aug. 20.

 

“Until the constituent assembly will ratify the constitution, and thereby the establishment of a new democratic and constitutional government will be ensured, Ethiopian forces will remain there,” Shimeles said today.

 

Ethiopian troops in the towns of Baidoa and Beledweyne were to be replaced by African Union peacekeepers from Uganda, Djibouti and Burundi by the end of April, the AU said on March 10. The continental bloc sent its first 100 peacekeepers to Baidoa on April 5, it said.

 

Ethiopian and AU forces, including troops from Kenya, are fighting to drive out al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked militant group that has waged a five-year insurgency trying to topple the country’s United Nations-backed transitional government.

 

Peacekeepers will remain until a new Somali government can “control and secure the peace and stability of Somalia against any possible attacks by extremists forces,” Shimeles said.

 

Somalia has had no effective central government since rebels deposed former leader Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.