Ethiopia's Foreign Minister
Tedros Adhanom speaks during a joint news conference with Algeria's
Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci in Algiers June 30, 2013. REUTERS/Ramzi
Boudina
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Ethiopia has begun pulling troops out of a former rebel
stronghold in Somalia, but it has no plans for a complete withdrawal
from the fight against al Qaeda-linked insurgents, its foreign minister
said on Monday.
Somalia has enjoyed relative calm after military offensives
by African Union (AMISOM) peacekeepers and Ethiopian troops, who have
pushed al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab from urban strongholds in central and
southern Somalia.
But suicide attacks have reinforced concerns the militants
remain a potent force and Ethiopia's sudden withdrawal in March from
Hudur - the capital of Bakool province near the Ethiopian border -
enabled al Shabaab to retake the town.
Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said Ethiopia had begun
pulling out of Baidoa - once considered the most important rebel city
after the port of Kismayu - because it was now relatively stabile and
Somali forces were able to take over.
"The withdrawal from Baidoa should have been done almost a
year ago but AMISOM was not ready and that could not be done," he told
Reuters in an interview. Ethiopia seized the city, about 250 km (150
miles) northwest of Mogadishu, last year.
"I am now glad that there is a well organised and planned
withdrawal and the space is already being occupied by Somali forces,"
Adhanom said.
After a 2006-2009 stint, Ethiopia once again sent troops to
Somalia in 2011 to fight al Shabaab, alongside African Union forces from
Uganda and Burundi and Kenyan troops that later incorporated the AMISOM
mission, after entering Somalia independently to pursue al Shabaab.
Addis Ababa pledged at the time that its forces would stay
in the war-ravaged country until Somalia's government could ratify a new
constitution and its ragtag military was able to fend off the militant
Islamist threat on its own.
Tedros said Ethiopia's aim now was to deploy in areas where
the rebels appeared to have a far stronger presence. He expressed
confidence that Somali troops would be able to stand their ground in
places Ethiopia left.
Ethiopian troops may deploy back to areas they have left if AMISOM and Mogadishu asked for their return, he said.
ON THE RUN
"That is what is needed when al Shabaab is on the run - the
best use of our forces instead of stationing them in just certain
places," he said.
"I don't think there is a need to put a deadline for
complete withdrawal because they (troops) will be engaged in one end
every now and then, based on the need."
Diplomats say Ethiopia has a contingent of around 8,000 troops in the country.
The overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged
Somalia into two decades of violence, first at the hands of clan
warlords and then Islamist militants, while two semi-autonomous regions -
Puntland and Somaliland - have emerged in northern Somalia.
U.N. sanctions experts said this month that Eritrea was
undermining stability by paying political agents and a warlord linked to
Islamist militants to influence the Mogadishu government.
Tedros accused Eritrea - long at odds with Ethiopia over an unresolved border dispute - of supporting the rebels.
"We have evidence that Eritrea is continuing to support al
Shabaab," he said. "I think the international community should really
take this seriously and take serious action especially in terms of
strengthening the sanctions that have already been imposed by the U.N."
Eritrea denies playing any negative role in Somalia, saying
it has no links to al Shabaab. It says U.N. sanctions imposed on it in
2009 for supporting the insurgents were based on lies and has called for
the sanctions to be lifted. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Robin
Pomeroy)