Ethiopia told to quit Somalia

2006-07-27 14:41

Asmara - Eritrea on Thursday called for the speedy withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, where they had been deployed to protect the country's fledgling government, warning that their continued stay risked provoking a regional conflict.

On a government website, Asmara also urged its archfoe, Addis Ababa, to heed calls by the country's increasingly powerful Islamic courts, which controlled much of southern Somalia and the capital, to leave the shattered Horn of Africa nation, ruined by more than a decade of fighting.

The information ministry said: "The government of Eritrea strongly urges all those forces and their backers to promptly stop all acts of invasion being perpetuated to wreck the materialisation of a unified Somalia, which can degenerate to the destabilisation and chaos of the whole region as well."

Ethiopia accused of deploying troops

It said: "All Somalis are warning beforehand that if the Ethiopian regime didn't return to its own territories, it will be liable for the severe consequences that may ensue."

Ethiopia had been accused of deploying troops to its southern neighbour to protect its weak government from a possible attack by the Islamists, but both Addis Ababa and the Somali government had denied such accusations despite several witness accounts.

Last week's deployment of Ethiopian troops had heightened tensions between the Islamic tribunals and the fragile government, which had accused the courts of plotting an attack against its base in the south-central town of Baidoa.

On Wednesday, the United States urged East African countries to stop intervening in Somalia, after government officials charged that a plane carrying weapons from Eritrea landed in the capital, Mogadishu.

Somalia 'home to 10m people'

But, the Islamists refused to comment on the contents of the cargo carried on the Russian-made Ilyushin 76-cargo plane, which bore the emblem of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state that frequently chartered its planes.

State department spokesperson Tom Casey said: "It's important that Somalia's neighbours avoid any kind of actions that would prevent these groups from getting together and being able to talk through their differences.

"We certainly don't want to see - whether it's Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan or any other country - engage or get involved in efforts to support any violence in that country."

Somalia was home to about 10 million people, and had been without a functioning central authority since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea had been strained since they fought a devastating 1998-2000 war over the ownership of a tiny strip of barren land along their common border.

- AFP