Ethiopia begins withdrawal from Somalia

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Ethiopia has started pulling its troops out of Somalia, where they have been helping the Western-backed government fight an Islamist insurgency for the past two years, a senior official said on Friday.

A convoy of trucks laden with Ethiopian soldiers, mattresses and other equipment left Mogadishu earlier, although some troops remained in Somalia's capital, witnesses said.

The departure of an estimated 3,000 Ethiopian troops risks leaving a potentially dangerous power vacuum in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation unless more African peacekeepers are sent quickly to strengthen an existing force of 3,200 in Somalia.

Bereket Simon, special adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopian, African Union (AU) and government force commanders had met in Addis Ababa and agreed on a plan for handing over security responsibilities.

"This process is now being conducted and the Ethiopian troop withdrawal movements have started," Simon told Reuters. "The withdrawal is not an event that can be completed within a day. It will be finalized as quickly as possible."

Residents saw a convoy of about 30 trucks with Ethiopian soldiers arriving in Afgoye, a town 30 kms (19 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, on Friday morning.

Residents also reported that Ethiopian troops were strengthening security along the road which leads from Mogadishu to Baidoa, the seat of parliament.

Somalia's parliament speaker and interim president, Sheikh Aden Madobe, appealed to the African Union during a visit to Kenya to strengthen its AMISOM force now.

"The agreement that we have with Ethiopia is that they will leave Somalia as soon as full AMISOM forces come to Somalia, but now it seems the Ethiopian government has decided to leave," Madobe told reporters in Nairobi. "We don't want a vacuum."

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The international community has been racing to beef up peacekeeping operations in Somalia but the United Nations has ruled out any quick deployment.

African Union officials say some 2,500 soldiers from Uganda, Burundi and Nigeria are ready to deploy but financial and logistical obstacles have so hindered them.

Without central government since 1991, Somalia has become the epitome of a failed state and the chaos onshore has fueled rampant piracy in the busy shipping lanes off the coast.

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in a two-year Islamist insurgency, a million people have fled their homes and a third of the population rely on emergency aid.

Diplomats say the Ethiopian departure may take the sting out of the insurgency, which has become a nationalist cause and holds sway in much of southern and central Somalia.

They also hope this week's resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf will be an opportunity to forge an inclusive government which can work for peace.

But some insurgents have vowed to fight the government even when its allies leave, and a hardline opposition group seen as key to lasting peace is snubbing the idea of power-sharing.

Without the Ethiopians, analysts say there is a risk the Islamists will seize the capital, where there are daily attacks.

Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu were targeted by a large blast earlier on Friday on the road to the airport. Witnesses said two soldiers and a number of civilians were killed.

The United Nations also denounced the killing of several prominent Somalis over the past week, including a well-known radio journalist and the deputy minister for reconciliation.

"The perpetrators should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N.'s special envoy to Somalia. "The focus should now be moving toward peace and stability and addressing impunity."