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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2010 - 09:34:55 EDT
Ethiopia may invade Somalia to rescue African peacekeepers: Zenawi
AFP | August 12, 2010
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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia said on Wednesday that it would send its troops
back into Somalia in the unlikely event it was called on to evacuate African
peacekeepers in the nation battling Islamist insurgents.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to topple the Islamist movement that gave
birth to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shebaab movement that today controls about
80 percent of the country. It pulled its troops out in early 2009.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he would send the forces back in
the "unlikely scenario" of peacekeeping troops from the African Union's
mission in Somalia (AMISOM), who are propping up the government, needing
rescue.
"We will provide all the assistance that we can from our side of the border
but we will not cross it, even if the TFG (transitional government in
Mogadishu) is threatened," Meles told journalists in Addis Ababa.
"The only time when we may cross it is if the lives of AMISOM troops are
under threat, and if they ask for our assistance. Then we will intervene
without hesitation," he said.
Meles said such an intervention would only involve facilitating the
evacuation of the peacekeepers through Ethiopian territory.
"In such an eventuality we would be prepared to go as far in to Somalia as
necessary to help AMISOM to do so. But this is completely hypothetical and I
don't expect it to happen," he said.
African leaders agreed last month to beef up AMISOM in the wake of suicide
blasts that killed nearly 80 people in Uganda's capital in July. The attacks
were claimed by al-Shebaab.
The militants said the blasts were to punish Uganda for its leading role in
the peacekeeping force.
Thousands of people have been killed in the violence in Somalia, and many
more displaced, with Mogadishu one of the world's most dangerous cities and
the country suffering one of its worst humanitarian disasters.
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