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December 24, 2006
Ethiopia says its Defense Forces
take decisive measures
DPA News Agency

December 24, 2006

An anti-aircraft deployed near Baidoa
An anti-aircraft heavy weapon is seen mounted on a truck 24 December 2006 on the outskirts of Idale, Somalia, a township about 60 kms south of the government seat, Baidoa.(AFP: Dec 24, 2006)


ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia acknowledged on Sunday to fighting with troops loyal to Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), the first time the country has admitted to sending combat soldiers to the neighbouring conflict-torn country. Forces loyal to the UIC and the government have been exchanging artillery fire for five days on several fronts near the government’s base in the western town of Baidoa, some 250 kilometres west of the capital Mogadishu.

“The Ethiopian National Defence Forces on Sunday started taking measures to foil the attack launched against Ethiopia by fundamentalist forces gathered in Somalia,” a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

Addis Ababa had previously said it sent several hundred military trainers to prop up the transitional government, but witnesses near the front lines said earlier this week they saw Ethiopian tanks and helicopters involved in the conflict.

The Defence Ministry also said its forces took “decisive measures” against “terrorist forces that attempted to infiltrate into Ethiopia to launch attacks.”

The UIC have vowed to wage jihad (holy war) on any Ethiopian troops in the country. Ethiopia, the greatest military power in the Horn of Africa, has long branded the UIC terrorists.

On Thursday, UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said the group was not fighting the government, but rather the Ethiopian troops said to be in the country training the government forces. The Somali transitional government has also denied that Ethiopian troops are fighting alongside its forces.

The first clashes erupted overnight Tuesday in Idale, 60 kilometres south-west of Baidoa, a day after an EU envoy had successfully pushed the warring sides to agree to attend peace talks. Tuesday also marked a one-week deadline given to Ethiopia by the UIC to remove its troops or face attacks.

The UIC dramatically rose to power this year, taking the capital Mogadishu in June and a series of other southern and central Somali towns afterwards. They seek to establish a religious state based on Islamic Sharia law, drawing in ethnic-Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia as part of a “united Somalia.”

The weak transitional government, divided and limited to its base in Baidoa, is the 14th attempt at establishing central rule in the country.

Somalia has been without a strong government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords plunged the country into lawlessness.

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© 2006 dpa German Press Agency

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