Ethiopian troops off to Somalia
2006-10-19 11:07
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's prime minister told parliament on Thursday that he had sent military trainers to help Somalia's struggling government, the first official acknowledgement that his nation's troops were inside the neighbouring country.
However, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia had not deployed a fighting force.
United Nations officials and local resident had long reported that Ethiopian troops had deployed inside Somali border towns and around the transitional government headquarters in Baidoa, 250km from the capital, Mogadishu, to support the weak government against Islamic militants.
Zenawi didn't say how many trainers he had sent to Ethiopia's eastern neighbour, but said the move was in keeping with international efforts to support a transitional government seeking to establish itself in a country that had been largely lawless for 15 years.
Islamists takes over Mogadishu
Meles said: "We have sent only trainers, who are soldiers. Other than this, the army has not entered into Somalia."
Ethiopian troops were first seen in the country after an Islamic group, the Council of Islamic Courts, took over Mogadishu and continued to expand across most of southern and central Somalia.
Leaders in the Islamic courts had declared a Holy War on Ethiopia because of the troop deployment.
Meles said such threats, and reported incursions into Ethiopia by Islamic militants, could lead to war if some kind of peaceful accommodation was not reached with the Islamic courts.
He said: "We have the right to defend ourselves against these people. We have been very patient throughout this ordeal.
"If the incursion continues ... the armed forces have a duty to respond to that. But at this moment, it has not reached this level."
Meles said his country was threatened on three fronts and that he was doing everything possible to keep those conflicts from turning violent.
He said that in addition to the Islamic forces in Somalia, long-time rival Eritrea had moved troops into a UN-monitored demilitarised zone between the two countries and Ethiopian insurgents were threatening his government from within.
- AP