Somali Islamists close Ethiopian border
Oct 7 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement ordered the partial closure of the country’s border with Ethiopia on Saturday, after accusing Ethiopian troops of invading, mining and shelling Somali territory.
Islamic court officials closed down border crossings in the central Hiran region for “national security reasons”, claiming that Ethiopian troops had occupied a village well inside Somalia and were conducting operations there.
“The border with Ethiopia is closed in the Hiran region for national security reasons,” said Sheikh Hussein Mohamud Gagale, the deputy security officer for the region.
“Ethiopian soldiers are conducting military manoeuvers around Sarirale village which is inside Somali territory,” he told Mogadishu’s Simba radio, noting that Sarirale is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the border.
“They also planted landmines around the border areas,” Gagale said. “The mines could kill our people and animals so we have taken the decision to block the border.”
As it has done in the past, most recently on Thursday when the Islamists accused Ethiopian forces of shelling the nearby border town of Beledweyne and sending thousands of troops, Addis Ababa immediately denied the claims.
“These are false allegations,” Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Solomon Abebe told AFP in Addis Ababa. “The extremists try to use Ethiopia as a cover to hide the real motives behind the curtain.
“The international community should give attention to what the extremists are doing, because it is an act of aggression against Ethiopia,” he said, repeating denials of any Ethiopian troops in or near Beledweyne.
Beledweyne is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Ethiopian border and 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from warlords in June and have used as base for rapid expansion.
Mainly Christian Ethiopia is wary of the rise of the Islamists who it accuses of being “jihadists” and is backing Somalia’s weak transitional government and its calls for the deployment of a regional peacekeeping force.
The Islamists are vehemently opposed to peacekeepers and have vowed to fight any foreign troops on Somali soil.
Tensions in central and southern Somalia have led to a huge surge in Somalis fleeing their homes to neighbouring Kenya, with the UN refugee agency reporting Friday than more than 1,000 people a day were crossing the border.
More than 30,000 Somalis have fled since the beginning of the year, it said.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority for the past 16 years and the Baidoa government, the latest in more than a dozen international attempts to restore stability, has been unable to assert control.
(ST/AFP)