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Ethiopian force to stay longer
24/01/2007 21:18 - (SA)
Addis Ababa - Ethiopian troops who helped oust Islamist hardliners from Mogadishu will remain in Somalia until the deployment of African Union (AU) peacekeepers, said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Wednesday.
A first batch of about 200 troops withdrew from the Somali capital on Tuesday, but thousands more remain and Meles said no security vacuum would be allowed to develop ahead of the arrival of a proposed 7 600-strong AU stabilisation force.
"We have not based our decision to withdraw on the AU's decision to deploy, but on an agreement with the TFG (transitional Somali government)," Meles told a press conference in Addis Ababa.
"We'll withdraw our troops in three phases. My expectation is that our last phase will coincide with the AU deployment. There will be no vacuum."
Although the AU agreed on Friday to the deployment of the force by the end of the month, only two countries - Uganda and Malawi - have so far pledged troops.
Somali situation volatile
The security situation remains volatile in Somali capital, highlighted by a mortar attack on Mogadishu's international airport on Wednesday in which five people were wounded.
The interim government, previously confined to a provincial backwater, was only able to oust a coalition of Islamists who had ruled Mogadishu since last June following the intervention of the Ethiopian military in late December.
Meles said it was vital that Somalia, without any effective central authority since the downfall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 shed its reputation for lawlessness.
The United States accused the Islamists of harbouring al-Qaeda affiliates and bombed one of their suspected hideouts in southern Somalia earlier this month.
"Ethiopia's interest is to have a stable state in Somalia that will not be a safe haven for terrorists," said Meles.
"Now we want to assist the Somali people to recover. The stand of Ethiopia is to back the TFG."
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