Nairobi/Addis Ababa - Ethiopia is to pull its troops out of
Somalia by the end of the year, increasing the likelihood that
Islamist insurgents will completely overrun the weak central
government.
Ethiopia has previously said it would pull out of its conflict-
ridden neighbour but always promised to ensure it would not leave
behind a security vacuum.
However, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said Friday that it would
extract its several thousand soldiers unconditionally by the end of
the year.
Ethiopian forces invaded in 2006 to help kick out the Islamic
Courts' Union (ICU) - a hardline Islamist regime that was in power
for six months.
A bloody insurgency then kicked off in early 2007. Aid agencies
say around 10,000 civilians have died and over a million have fled
as Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab has made huge gains.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed recently admitted that the
insurgents control most of southern and central Somalia and are now
perched on the edge of the capital Mogadishu.
The insurgent push has been aided by political infighting between
Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein that has paralysed the
government.
The Ethiopians now appear to have grown tired of watching the
government bicker while its troops take a pounding.
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin earlier this week said
the Somali authorities showed no readiness to shoulder
responsibility and that the political squabble was about clan-based
cronyism.
He also criticized Somali members of parliament for living in
Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya, and only coming to
Somalia to collect their salaries.
'The Ethiopian army will not stay for too long paying sacrifices
in defence of Mogadishu airport and palace,' he said.
Hardline Islamists have refused to talk peace unless the
Ethiopians first left Somalia, but it is not clear if they will now
come to the table or continue to advance.
Al-Shabaab has already rejected a peace deal agreed between
moderate opposition figures and the government.
There is a small African Union peacekeeping force of around 2,000
based in Somalia, but analysts do not feel this is strong enough to
repulse the insurgents.
Ethiopia, a key US ally, has long been calling for a UN
peacekeeping force to be sent into Somalia but this has not
materialized.
The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by chaos and civil war
since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping said the political
chaos has also helped fuel a surge in piracy, which peaked with the
recent seizure of a Saudi supertanker carrying crude oil worth 100
million dollars.
Almost 40 ships have been hijacked this year and the UN says that
pirates have scooped as much as 30 million dollars in ransoms this
year alone.
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