Ethiopian troops will not return to Somalia– foreign minister
January 28, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The Ethiopian foreign minister has ruled out any return of its army to the troubled Somalia after seizure of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional parliament last Monday.
“Don’t think that Ethiopian troops are ready again to step into Somalia that is ruled out” Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin told reporter on Tuesday on the sideline of a meeting of IGAD ministers in Addis Ababa.
However, Mesfin pledged to support efforts of the African peacekeeping mission in Somalia and the Somali government to restore security and fight the Islamist Al-Shebab who threaten the political process in the country.
“But we will do everything for AMISOM and the Somali institutions to fight anarchy and this terrorist threat inside their country,” he added.
Baidoa, located some 250 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu, was the last town to be vacated by Ethiopian troops.
The minister accused Al-Shebab of using Ethiopia’s presence in Somalia as a pretext to spread violence and chaos in the country despite the death of 16000 people since two years as result of the fighting there.
“Now that Ethiopian troops are completely out of Somalia, so they have a different a different agenda, leading Somalia to the verge of fragmentation. And they are leading Somalia down the drain. They must not be allowed to lead Somalia into that disaster,” he said.
The IGAD minister condemned on Tuesday the seizure of Baidoa by Al-Shebab which they described as “anti-peace groups.”
In Baidoa, the spokesperson of Al-Shebab, Muktar Robow, rejected the ongoing the UN backed efforts in Dijbouti to form a national government with a moderate Islamist group.
“We will never accept a government unless it implements Islamic law in the country,” Robow said.
In Djibouti, some 150 new lawmakers from the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) have sworn in today in order to take part in the scheduled election of a new Somali president.
(ST)