Garowe Online (Garowe)
29 March 2008
Mogadishu — Government troops shelled a crowded market in the Somali capital on Saturday after suspected insurgents launched mortars at the presidential palace, where Ethiopia's foreign affairs minister met with the Somali president.
At least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded after several shells landed inside Mogadishu's main Bakara market, witnesses reported.
Five mortars slammed in and around Villa Somalia, the presidential compound where interim President Abdullahi Yusuf met privately with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin.
Islamist guerrillas claimed responsiblity for the mortars on a Web site posting.
There has been no official statement regarding Mr. Mesfin's unannounced trip to Mogadishu, but government sources said the Ethiopian Foreign Minister' s discussions with President Yusuf centered around security and the reconciliation process.
The Ethiopian government deployed its army into Somalia to save Yusuf's weak interim government from collapse, but the Somali government and its foreign military backers have faced a bloody insurgency since.
Thousands of civilians have been killed during the insurgency, which has displaced 1 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations.
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Climate for Africa growth more conducive-Ethiopia PM
Ethiopia claims arresting suspects in China oil field attack: report
Sun Mar 30, 6:43 PM ET
Ethiopia said on Sunday its security forces had arrested eight men suspected of involvement in last year's deadly raid on a Chinese oil venture, state media reported.
The Ethiopian News Agency said the detainees were members of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist group fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in Ogaden.
Police said the suspects were linked to the April 2007 attack that killed 74 people, including nine Chinese oil workers, the report said.
It said they were also accused of taking part in a grenade attack in the regional capital Jijiga where two people died in May last year.
"The ... suspects were also engaged in activities of plotting and committing murders in some towns in the Somali Regional State in eastern Ethiopia.
"These suspects of the terror acts had roles ranging from serving as accomplices to coordinating the atrocities committed against civilians," the ENA report added.
The Ethiopian army launched a crackdown in the region on ONLF rebels soon after the attack that grounded operations in the Chinese oil venture in Ogaden region.
The barren region has long been extremely poor, but discovery of gas and oil brought new hopes and has fueled the conflict.
Formed in 1984, the ONLF is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden, who they say have been marginalised by Addis Ababa.
Once again, false prophets of American "democracy" are betraying & bleeding Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans. Dear Editor, If the American false prophets have the agenda of using Ethiopian dictators to bleed Africans in the name of "Western Democracy", as the Africans would like them to believe, American politician are going to be in major surprise to realize that Africans know "wolves in sheep skin". American politicians are entitled to sell their soul to the lowest bidder and leak the boots of Ethiopian dictators, in the service of American agenda of bleeding African by Africans. But that does not give them the right to insult the intelligence of millions of freedom and peace loving people all over Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea or USA. Like all the historical miseries & difficulties Africans have to over come for over 500 years in relations with the American & European invasion & enslavement of Africa & Africans, there comes a time where Africans will decide their own destiny on their own free will, again overcoming and exposing the self-serving agenda & the true colors of the false messiahs & prophets of "Western Democracy". Just as the Jews survived & overcame European 3000 years of enslavement, massacre & holocaust since the Roman empire, Africans will over come 500 years of "Western Democracy, the enslavement, massacre & holocaust of Africans". As for African dictators, they may serve their Western masters & bleed Africans for now. In the end, they are going to be forced out to oblivion, by their own victims, the African people.