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Ethiopian military to remain in war-torn Somalia until government formed

June 22, 2012 · 307863 Comments2012-06-23+04%3A27%3A34Sahra+Farah

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopian forces will stay in Somalia until an elected government is set up and takes over from the interim administration, State Communications Minister Shimeles Kemal told reporters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia is its second since 2006. Its forces withdrew in January 2009 after pushing the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu, and later becoming bogged down in a guerrilla war with Islamic militants.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s government is supposed to hold elections and finish its transitional rule by Aug. 20.

“Until the constituent assembly will ratify the constitution, and thereby the establishment of a new democratic and constitutional government will be ensured, Ethiopian forces will remain there,” Shimeles said today.

Ethiopian troops in the towns of Baidoa and Beledweyne were to be replaced by African Union peacekeepers from Uganda, Djibouti and Burundi by the end of April, the AU said on March 10. The continental bloc sent its first 100 peacekeepers to Baidoa on April 5, it said.

Ethiopian and AU forces, including troops from Kenya, are fighting to drive out al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked militant group that has waged a five-year insurgency trying to topple the country’s United Nations-backed transitional government.

Peacekeepers will remain until a new Somali government can “control and secure the peace and stability of Somalia against any possible attacks by extremists forces,” Shimeles said.

Somalia has had no effective central government since rebels deposed former leader Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa at wdavison3@bloomberg.net

Bloomberg

June 22, 2012

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By Sahra Farah

Tags: Ethiopia, Government, Military, Somalia

khaliif ahmed says:

This sh^t need to go.They are playing all types of games arming ahlu-jini waljamaaca-Al-shabab wal sheydaan & have more Than ten Thousand informers inside somalia.

3:36 am on June 23, 2012

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mohamed cheers says:

Under what the IC and the UN Universal Charter international laws, norms, allow the Ethiopian
and Kenyan unilateral free hand military invasion incursions to fight inside the failed (without functioning govt since 1991), lawless Somalia territorial soil, land/sea???. All under the powerless rubber stamp, self employed TFG warlords express permission. With all these confusions, the poor civilian populations of Somalia are suffering as a result. Both Ethiopian and Kenyan military have no rights to invade and fight a failed and lawless Somalia and the IC big powers and the UN should not remain passive to such unilateral declaration of all out war criminology of this kind.
Cheers.

6:29 am on June 23, 2012

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Jabuutawi says:

Those soldiers are the faces of evil. Somalis are their worst enemies by inviting their eternal enemy to their country. This indicates Somalis are content being pissed on by their historical enemy than compromise with their next of kin. Pathetic and petulant people!

1:02 pm on June 23, 2012

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