Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
19 December 2006
Mogadishu — The Ethiopian government stated Tuesday that withdrawing its troops from Somalia is not the interest of the two-year-old transitional government based in Baidoa, which is 245 km away from the capital Mogadishu.
Burhan Heilu, Ethiopian information minister, who spoke to BBC, said Ethiopian government believes that Somalia could get out of the crises through peaceful dialog between Union of Islamic Courts and the government.
He denied that there were Ethiopian combatant troops in Somalia, but admitted they had several hundred military trainers and advisors in Baidoa to protect the Somali fragile government.
Speaking about the deadline Islamic Courts gave to the Ethiopian government to pull its troops out of the country, Heilu said Islamists gave ultimatums several times in the past. "We are not surprised that they have threatened our military officers and trainers in Somalia. We are always ready to defend ourselves", he said.
The Ethiopian government has always denied it has deployed thousands of military troops in Somalia. Last month United Nations reported that Ethiopia and Eritrea had several thousands of their combatant troops in Somalia. Both countries denied the report.
Diplomats fear war in Somalia could be a regional one.
Islamic Courts deadline ends on Tuesday. Abdirahim Ali Mudey, Islamic Courts information secretary, stated yesterday that they would launch attacks on Ethiopian troops in the country, indicating that there were outside countries brokering peace talks between the Ethiopian government and Islamic Courts.
The Somali transitional government was formed in Kenya in 2004 after two years of protracted negotiations between heavily armed warlords.
The weak government barely controls beyond its small base of Baidoa.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2006 Shabelle Media Network. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
