[R-G] Ethiopia to Pull Its Troops From Somalia by End of the Year

[Anthony Fenton]

Ethiopia to Pull Its Troops From Somalia by End of the Year
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802657.html
By Mohamed Olad Hassan
Associated Press
Saturday, November 29, 2008; A09

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Nov. 28 -- Ethiopia announced Friday that it will  
pull its forces from Somalia by year's end, leaving the ravaged  
capital vulnerable to the Islamist fighters who have seized nearly all  
of the country.

The decision ends the unpopular two-year presence here of the key U.S.  
ally much as it began -- with the fighters in near-total control of a  
failed state beset by a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Ethiopia has sent thousands of troops here since early 2007, when it  
launched a U.S.-backed operation that drove the Islamists from the  
capital, Mogadishu, after six months in power.

Since then, the Islamists have waged a ferocious insurgency, attacking  
U.N.-supported Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies  
almost daily.

The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding  
ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden declared his support for  
the Islamists. It said Friday it will push for a U.N. peacekeeping  
force to be deployed to Somalia.

"The United States regards deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping  
operation as essential for stability in Somalia, and we are working  
with our Security Council and other partners to prepare a U.N.  
Security Council resolution on this matter," Patrick Ventrell, a  
spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said in New York.

Ethiopian forces have remained almost entirely in Mogadishu, along  
with a small African Union force that has just 2,600 of the 8,000  
troops it was intended to have and has largely been confined to urban  
bases.

The insurgents, meanwhile, have taken control of towns near the  
capital and move freely inside it.

Ethiopia and the Somali government have called for a U.N. peacekeeping  
force to help pacify the country and boost the weak government. The  
U.N. Security Council has said it would consider sending peacekeepers  
to replace A.U. forces if Somalia can improve security and achieve  
political reconciliation.

Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahide Bellay said Ethiopia would  
wait no longer. "Regardless of what happens, we have decided to  
withdraw our troops from Somalia at the end of the year," he said from  
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Calls for comment from the Somali government were not immediately  
returned.