Somalia’s president to visit Ethiopia Tuesday

June 19, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The president of Somalia’s transitional government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is expected to visit Addis Ababa Tuesday, diplomatic sources said Monday, amid charges from Somali Islamic clerics that Ethiopian troops have crossed into the lawless country.

“President Yusuf will arrive tomorrow (Tuesday),” a source close to the Somali embassy said, without specifying the objective of the visit.

Yusuf is expected to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, another diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity.

Islamic clerics, whose militias have seized control of Mogadishu and some outlying areas, accused Ethiopia over the weekend of sending several hundred troops into Somalia, heading toward the transitional government headquarters in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Somali capital.

Addis Ababa has denied the accusation, saying only that it had reinforced troops near its common border with Somalia.

The Somali government spokesman, Abdirahman Nur Mohamed Dinari, on Sunday called the Islamic clerics’ accusations a pretext for planning an attack on Baidoa, seat of the transitional government set up in 2004 which has been powerless to restore order in the country.

Yusuf is also expected to visit the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, a Somali diplomat said. The AU said Monday it wanted to send a mission to Somalia to assess the need for a peacekeeping force in the country shattered by 15 years of civil war.

(ST)