Witnesses: Ethiopian forces in Somalia
Islamist hardliners patrol near a checkpoint in southern Mogadishu, March
2009. AFP/File
19 May, 2009
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into war-ravaged Somalia and appear to be stationing themselves in a town at a strategic crossroads, witnesses said Tuesday.
The number of troops was not known, although a witness said he saw 12 military vehicles. It was not clear whether they were the vanguard of a larger force or an attempt to protect their porous border from Islamic insurgents.
There have been sporadic reports of Ethiopian troops crossing the border since they pulled out of Somalia at the start of 2009 as part of a peace deal.
Ethiopian troops originally entered the country in 2006 to restore the U.N.-backed government to power in Mogadishu, which Islamist fighters had seized along with much of southern Somalia. The Islamists were outgunned by Ethiopian firepower but began an Iraq-style insurgency.
Fighting between the weak U.N.-backed government and Islamic insurgents has intensified recently.
Witnesses said they saw the troops in the Somali town of Kalabeyr, 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the Ethiopian border and 11 miles (18 kilometers) north of Belet Weyne, the provincial capital of Somalia's Hiran region. Kalabeyr lies at a strategic junction of a road that links southern, central and northern Somalia to the Ethiopian border.
Local bus driver Farah Ahmed Adan said he saw 12 military vehicles.
"Some of them were digging trenches while others were guarding the whole area," he said. "They stopped me and checked my car and then ordered me to move."
Resident Tabane Abdi Ali said the troops spoke Ethiopia's Amharic language and their vehicles carried Ethiopian number plates. Another resident, Fadum Duale, said the troops crossed the border late on Monday night and appeared to be taking up defensive positions.
Somali Information Minister Farhan Ali Mahmud would not comment on the reports of Ethiopian troop arrivals. The government directly controls only a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu. Allied militias control parts of central Somalia.
Islamist forces, strengthened by at least two defections of groups of government soldiers, have attacked Somali forces in Mogadishu and seized territory in central Somalia in recent days.
The U.S. State Department says some Somali insurgent leaders have links to al-Qaida, and international observers fear an Islamist victory would give terrorists a haven on the Horn of Africa, already menaced by Somali pirates.
Ethiopian officials did not immediately return calls but typically do not comment on military matters.
Any substantial movement of Ethiopian troops into Somali territory could hand the Islamists a propaganda coup. They used nationalist and religious rhetoric to help recruit fighters against the previous Somali administration, portraying the Islamist cause as a defense of Somalia against Ethiopian invaders, who are largely Christian.
The Somali parliament elected a new president earlier this year, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a former Islamist fighter who signed a peace deal with the previous administration.
Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at thinktank International Crisis Group, said the president was in an untenable position — without Ethiopian support, his government might fall, but accepting it would hand the insurgents a propaganda tool. The government commands around 3,300 troops and has a contingent of 4,350 African Union peacekeepers in the capital.
"If he doesn't call on Ethiopian support, he can't expect the (African Union) to slow down the insurgency. If he calls on the Ethiopians, he can save his government from collapse but he plays into the hands of the insurgents politically because they can use the intervention to portray him as a puppet of the Ethiopians," Abdi said.
Although Ethiopia pulled its troops out, it remains eager to secure key border towns and to preserve the current Somali government. The insurgents have ethnic ties to Ethiopian rebels and believe that some oil-rich Ethiopian territory should be part of a greater Somalia.
Somalia has not had a functioning government for 18 years and the conflict is complicated by a tangled web of clan loyalties and the involvement of both Ethiopia and its archenemy Eritrea. Ethiopian is a U.S. ally and receives substantial military aid but American officials have criticized Eritrea for allegedly providing arms to the insurgents.
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Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.