From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Jun 15 2009 - 14:33:29 EDT
Official Says Ethiopian Troops Back in Somalia
By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
15 June 2009
A local official in Somalia says Ethiopian troops are now staying at a
military base near a town in the central part of the country. The reported
sighting of Ethiopian troops in central Somalia is just one of several from
around the country.
In an interview with local reporters, the district commissioner of Balanbale
town in the central Galgadud region says several truck loads of Ethiopian
troops are staying at the military base set up on the outskirts of the town.
District Commissioner Hareere Hassan Barre did not say how many Ethiopian
troops were in Balanbale, located about 28 kilometers from the Ethiopian
border, but his comments appear to back up other eyewitness reports.
Barre said the soldiers began arriving there on Friday and have set up a
military camp in the western part of town.
The Somali official says an Ethiopian commander explained that the troops
have been sent to Balanbale for security reasons, not to re-occupy the town.
Barre says their presence appears to be related to heightened al-Shabab
activities in central Somalia in recent weeks.
Since early May, deadly fighting has erupted in several towns in the
Galgadud region between pro-government militias and an alliance of al-Shabab
and Hisbul Islam militants. The militants are fighting to retain, and to
expand, the territory they control in central and southern Somalia and to
overthrow the weak government of President Sharif Sheik Ahmed.
Under a U.N.-sponsored agreement with the moderate Islamist leader, Ethiopia
ended its unpopular two-year occupation of Somalia five months ago. But the
militants have portrayed President Sharif as a western puppet and have
intensified the insurgency.
Ethiopia remains deeply wary of al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaida
network, and Hisbul Islam, which is led by hard-line nationalists determined
to unite ethnically Somali parts of Ethiopia with Somalia. Hundreds of
foreigners are also believed to be Somalia, fighting alongside the Somali
militants.
The government in Addis Ababa had warned that Ethiopian troops would be sent
back if the Somali government was unable to keep the militants in check.
Earlier this month, government spokesman Bereket Simon acknowledged that
Ethiopian troops have conducted what he called "small reconnaissance
missions" across the border.
But Bereket has flatly rejected Somali reports that Ethiopian troops have
set up camp in Balanbale.
Chad's ambassador to the African Union, Sharif Mohamed Zene, who holds the
rotating chairmanship of the A.U. Peace and Security Council, says he
believes the allegation is being made by rebel groups trying to find an
excuse to attack the government and African Union peacekeeping troops in the
capital Mogadishu.
"The Ethiopian troops are not there. They withdrew completely from Somalia.
It is a false allegation," Zene said.
In recent months, eyewitnesses in the central Hiran region of Somalia have
reported seeing large numbers of Ethiopian troops in the border town of Kala
Bayr. Last week, residents in Somalia's Bakool region said that Ethiopian
troops had moved into a village called Washaga, near the Ethiopian border.
None of the reports have been independently verified. But both regions have
significant al-Shabab and Hisbul Islam presence.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----