African forces make headway in Somalia

By Prince Ofori-Atta and Addis

  

Two days after Ethiopian troops captured the Somali town of Baladweyne from extremist group al Shabab, Ethiopia has confirmed that it had sent troops to Somalia to help the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of that country in the fight against the Islamist militants.

Troops from almost all IGAD member states are now in Somalia/Photo/Reuters

An official who demanded anonymity said Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia at the request of the TFG and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a six member state organisation including Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia.
IGAD requested Ethiopia's military backing to buttress existing forces in Somalia during an extra ordinary summit on the situation in Somalia last November.
Somalia now has more than 9,000 peacekeeping forces from Uganda and Burundi under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Peacekeepers from Djibouti joined the mission a few weeks ago.
Number of troops
Kenya, which has already deployed its troops to Somalia after militias from Somalia crossed its border and abducted holiday makers, is awaiting approval from the United Nations Security Council after its parliament voted to allow its troops to join AMISOM .
According to media reports the Ethiopian troops, which are operating independently of the AMISOM and Kenyan troops, are now based in the town of Beledweyne, close to the Ethiopian border.
The strategic Somali border town of Beledweyne was captured on December 31 when, according to media sources, over 3,000 Ethiopian and TGF Somali troops clashed with the Islamist militants.
This comes after reports on Monday indicated that AMISOM troops on Thursday pushed al Shabab out and secured a large portion of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
It is still unclear how many African troops are in Somalia to assist the 9,000 strong AU troops (consisting mainly of Ugandan and Burundi forces) since Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia joined in the fight against the al Shabab militants.
"Ethiopian troops are in Somalia because of the appeal from IGAD and TFG of Somalia," said the official. He however stopped short of revealing how many troops Ethiopia sent and for how long they planned to remain in Somalia.
So far, all IGAD members states, with the exception of the Sudan, are involved in the fight against al Shabab militants in Somalia.
No opposition
The Ethiopian government's decision to deploy troops to Somalia in 2007 sparked fierce debate in parliament after opposition parties said they had not agreed to the deployment.
This time, however, the Ethiopian parliament counts a handful of the opposition minority.
It is the second time Ethiopia has officially sent troops to Somalia since 2006.

In December 2006, the Union of Islamic Court (ICU) forces were kicked out of Mogadishu ten days after thousands of Ethiopian troops stormed Somalia to help the TFG.
The defeat of ICU and eventual withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops saw the emergence of the extremist Islamist movement, Al Shabab in its bid to overthrow the weak TFG.