From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sun Oct 04 2009 - 16:12:31 EDT
THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER N°1269
19/09/2009
ETHIOPIA
ONLF goes back into action
Since the end of August, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF,
armed opposition) has got into many skirmishes with the Ethiopian armed
forces in the eastern part of the country, attacking small military
convoys. It even carried out a night attack on the government military
base in Denan, a small city in the Ogaden region, on 4 September.
According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter from a
diplomatic source in Addis Ababa, another skirmish took place more
recently on 14 September, between Harar and Jijiga. It was in fact a
rebel ambush at Dageta, near Babile, against a convoy of government
troops.
The attack is believed to have produced several victims among the
Ethiopian military. The authorities in Addis Ababa attributed this
operation to Somali rebels without specifying whether they are members
of the ONLF or another group.
For its part, the ONLF had still not claimed responsibility for the 14
September operation. After this incident, a special meeting was urgently
convened at the ministry of defence in Addis Ababa, because the
Ethiopian authorities have serious misgivings about security at the
moment.
They fear that Somalian rebels might intervene directly in Ethiopia to
"punish" the country for its actions against the radical Islamists in
Ethiopia. But they take the warning issued by the ONLF against oil
companies considering operating in the south and east of the country
very seriously.
And this just at a time when the Malaysian company Petronas has hired
the British firm
Weatherford to carry out a seismic study and exploratory drilling on its
oil prospecting concession in the Genale basin, in the east of Ethiopia.
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