Facing collapse, Somali rulers plead for Ethiopia to stay

December 1, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Somali Transitional Federal
Government has expressed fears that the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops
in the current conditions with no alternative military force, like a
UN peacekeeping mission, could have terrible consequences.

The spokesman for the Presidency of the Transitional Federal
Government of Somalia (TFG) Hasan Muhammad Mahmud, alias Xubsireed,
said in a statement that the planned withdrawal of Ethiopian troops
within this month of December saddens the TFG.

If Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia before the full deployment
of the 8,000 troops earlier promised by the African Union, the country
will slide back to the civil war between Somalis and Islamist groups
whose capability has increased, said the spokesman for the Somali
presidency.

He added that Ethiopia will also be at risk since it shares a border
with Somalia. “We would like to ask Ethiopia to reconsider its
decision to withdraw its troops from Somalia,” he said.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Osman Elmi Boqore raised similar fears
with Voice of America News, saying that after the Ethiopian
withdrawal, the TFG may cease to exist.

The spokesman for the Somali presidency, speaking to Dayniile news,
said the president is attending matters that are important to the
nation in Garowe, the capital of Puntland, which is also the
stronghold of the Harti sub-clan of the Darood, the clan affiliation
of TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf.

The spokesman said the Puntland administration is part of the TFG and
the president is in the region to reconcile presidential candidates
who are vying for the leadership of the region with the current
president, Adde Muse. The conflict between the Puntland leader and the
presidential candidates is mainly about the way elections are to be
conducted.

“The president will come back to Mogadishu as soon as his visit to
Puntland is over,” said the spokesman for the Somali presidency. Some
reports previously indicated that the president will not be coming
back to Mogadishu due to security reasons after the Ethiopian
government made the decision to withdraw its troops from the country.

A coalition of Islamists and other forces now controls much of Somalia
aside from parts of Mogadishu and Baidoa, the parliamentary seat, and
Puntland and Somaliland in the north.

The Islamic Courts Union had briefly brought control and influence
over most of Somalia in 2006 before they were toppled by a U.S.-backed
Ethiopian invasion at the end of that year. Insurgents affiliated with
the Islamists subsequently fought the Ethiopian-backed TFG across
Somalia and in urban combat that displaced millions of civilians.

Senior UN officials have called the situation in Somalia the world’s
worst humanitarian catastrophe.

(ST)