Ethiopian troops enter Somalia’s Baidoa to protect presidency, airport
Aug 20, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Ethiopian troops, allied to Somalia’s weak transitional government, entered Somalia early Sunday and reached the Baidoa town in southern Somalia seat of the government, to protect vital establishments.
According to Somali Banaadir radio (BR), more than 500 troops aboard military carriers and tanks arrived in the township, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, through Awdhedele village, residents said.
Ethiopian troops secured the presidency and the airport.
The Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), which controls much of southern Somalia, said the soldiers came at the request of the government of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed and President Abdullahi Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
“Some 300 Ethiopian troops came into Baidoa on Sunday aboard trucks after the government requested more security at the airport,” a SICS official told AFP.
It was not clear if the latest group of Ethiopian troops in Somalia was the same that was said to have entered in July, and may have later withdrawn.
Witnesses said some 90 government troops assigned to guard the facility over the weekend defected and joined the Islamic militia in the capital, the latest in a spree of defections hitting a government that has failed to exert its authority across the Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia deployed troops into Somalia last month to protect the Somali government from feared attacks by the increasingly powerful Islamists who it says are being supplied by neighbouring Eritrea.
Both countries have flatly denied the accusations, but Addis Ababa has made clear its resentment of the Islamists and vowed to “crush” them if they target the 18-month-old government based in the south-central town of Baidoa.
The Islamists have refused to participate in Arab League-mediated peace talks with the government in Khartoum until the Ethiopian troops pull out.
The fresh deployment came as the Islamist movement announced it would organize a national forum to chart the lawless country’s future, further bypassing the weak government it threatens.
More than 14 internationally backed initiatives have failed to restore peace in Somalia, which plunged into lawlessness in 1991 after the ousting of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre. It was then divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by unruly warlords.
The Islamic militia, now led by a cleric accused by the United States of having ties to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, have stepped into the power vacuum, prompting fears that the country may become a breeding ground for terrorists.
(AP/BR/AFP)