Medeshi Jan 25, 2009
Defeated Ethiopia pulls its troops from Somalia
Ethiopia said Sunday it has withdrawn all its troops from Somalia, two years after the soldiers were deployed to prop up Somalia's transitional government.
The troops arrived in the Ethiopian border town of Dollow on Saturday and were greeted warmly by residents and officials there, the country's defense ministry told CNN.
As troops withdrew from around the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week, forces from different Islamist groups -- including the hard-line Al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- took control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned.
"The city is almost under Islamist rule," said a local journalist who did not want his name revealed. "You can hear different names of the Islamist groups taking control in many parts of the city."
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to reinstall a U.N.-backed transitional government in Mogadishu after a hardline Islamist group overtook the capital and seized power.
Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union -- which captured Mogadishu earlier that year -- of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda.
The Islamists responded with a guerrilla campaign against government and Ethiopian troops. Efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union -led peacekeeping mission faltered as the violence worsened, and heavy fighting in Mogadishu and other cities drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.
The lawlessness also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by pirates, suspected to be Somali, who demand large ransoms. And the transitional government was wracked by a power struggle between Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in December.
Ahmed attempted to fire Hussein for being ineffective. But Hussein said the president did not have the power to fire him, and the vast majority of members of parliament backed Hussein in a vote of confidence.
Hussein said last week that he would run for president, and lawmakers were expected to meet this week.
Ethiopia said Sunday it has withdrawn all its troops from Somalia, two years after the soldiers were deployed to prop up Somalia's transitional government.
The troops arrived in the Ethiopian border town of Dollow on Saturday and were greeted warmly by residents and officials there, the country's defense ministry told CNN.
As troops withdrew from around the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week, forces from different Islamist groups -- including the hard-line Al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- took control of bases the Ethiopians abandoned.
"The city is almost under Islamist rule," said a local journalist who did not want his name revealed. "You can hear different names of the Islamist groups taking control in many parts of the city."
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to reinstall a U.N.-backed transitional government in Mogadishu after a hardline Islamist group overtook the capital and seized power.
Ethiopia's invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union -- which captured Mogadishu earlier that year -- of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda.
The Islamists responded with a guerrilla campaign against government and Ethiopian troops. Efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union -led peacekeeping mission faltered as the violence worsened, and heavy fighting in Mogadishu and other cities drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.
The lawlessness also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by pirates, suspected to be Somali, who demand large ransoms. And the transitional government was wracked by a power struggle between Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in December.
Ahmed attempted to fire Hussein for being ineffective. But Hussein said the president did not have the power to fire him, and the vast majority of members of parliament backed Hussein in a vote of confidence.
Hussein said last week that he would run for president, and lawmakers were expected to meet this week.
Ethiopia Defeated
by Abdishakur Jowhar M.D
The Ethiopians came bristling with the hardware of modern warfare. They came looking like Rambo with black stripes painted on black faces. They came brimming with pride, arrogance and the foolishness of man. They let lose their goons on the populace and harvested death and destruction. They emptied the Capital City of its people and made it the exclusive domain of rapid dogs, occupying armies and the barely human dogs-of-war. They watched with glee as Somalis engaged in their national sport of ethnic cleansing one sub-clan at a time and their number one hired help parked himself in Villa Somalia and took on the grizzly task with the enthusiasm of Rwanda's Interahamwe. And in the meantime the Ethiopian occupation force began to wash its soiled feet in the salty water of the Indian Ocean, to satisfy its centuries worth of longing and hoping and scheming for an access to the seas. Mogadishu once rehabilitated by the short lived moderate Islamic Courts became the new killing fields of Africa-the unfortunate.
Oh time! Two short years, full of glory and sacrifice. And the Ethiopians find them self exhausted, broke, demoralized, dragging their dead, leaving, claiming "success" and well, in short defeated. Defeated by al- Shabaab - the spear head of the Resistance. Zenawi, we may ask, who is laughing now? Who is cocky now? Victory to the people! Glory be to be Allah (SWT). Yes to Al-shabaab; I who have been most vehemently opposed to them, find myself no choice but to rejoice with Shebaab today for they have conclusively demonstrated to the Somali people that their mortal enemy could be defeated.
by Abdishakur Jowhar M.D
The Ethiopians came bristling with the hardware of modern warfare. They came looking like Rambo with black stripes painted on black faces. They came brimming with pride, arrogance and the foolishness of man. They let lose their goons on the populace and harvested death and destruction. They emptied the Capital City of its people and made it the exclusive domain of rapid dogs, occupying armies and the barely human dogs-of-war. They watched with glee as Somalis engaged in their national sport of ethnic cleansing one sub-clan at a time and their number one hired help parked himself in Villa Somalia and took on the grizzly task with the enthusiasm of Rwanda's Interahamwe. And in the meantime the Ethiopian occupation force began to wash its soiled feet in the salty water of the Indian Ocean, to satisfy its centuries worth of longing and hoping and scheming for an access to the seas. Mogadishu once rehabilitated by the short lived moderate Islamic Courts became the new killing fields of Africa-the unfortunate.
Oh time! Two short years, full of glory and sacrifice. And the Ethiopians find them self exhausted, broke, demoralized, dragging their dead, leaving, claiming "success" and well, in short defeated. Defeated by al- Shabaab - the spear head of the Resistance. Zenawi, we may ask, who is laughing now? Who is cocky now? Victory to the people! Glory be to be Allah (SWT). Yes to Al-shabaab; I who have been most vehemently opposed to them, find myself no choice but to rejoice with Shebaab today for they have conclusively demonstrated to the Somali people that their mortal enemy could be defeated.
