Al-Shabaab rebels flee as Ethiopians move in

22 November, 2011 | The Daily Star
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MOGADISHU: Al-Shabaab militants have begun pulling out of
at least two rebel enclaves in central Somalia after neighboring
Ethiopia dispatched hundreds of troops across the border,
residents said Monday.
















Addis Ababa denied Sunday that its forces had yet entered
Somalia, but local residents and elders said scores of Ethiopian
vehicles ferrying troops and weapons moved at least 80
kilometers into the Horn of Africa country over the weekend.

Local people in Beledweyne and Ceelbuur, both close to the
Ethiopian frontier and under insurgent control, said the Islamist
fighters had abandoned checkpoints where they used to extort
taxes and left their battle stations.

“I saw a convoy of Al-Shabaab troops vacating the front lines,”
said a resident of Ceelbuur, who identified himself only as
Ahmad. “I don’t know where [the fighters] are headed, but they
aren’t in the town any longer.”

An Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman said a decision on
whether to join the assault against Al-Shabaab in some form
would be taken Friday at a meeting of east African heads of
state.

However, the residents said the Ethiopian military had already
arrived, five weeks after Kenya launched an operation to crush
the Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The disappearance of Al-Shabaab fighters from zones close to
where Ethiopian troops were stationed does not necessarily
signify an all-out retreat.

Many rebels appeared to melt away into the local population
when Kenya sent hundreds of ground troops into southern
Somalia last month and began an early wave of airstrikes against
the militants it blames for a wave of kidnappings on its soil.

Since then they appear to have re-grouped, engaging Kenyan
troops in hit-and-run attacks that, together with heavy rains,
have hampered the Kenyan advance on rebel bases.

The last time Ethiopia entered Somalia was in December 2006,
with tacit U.S. backing and at the invitation of a Somali
government that had lost control of large swathes of the country,
including the capital, to another Islamist group.

They left in early 2009 after ousting that group, winning backing
in some corners of the country, but inspiring considerable
support among others for its offshoot, Al-Shabaab.

In Ceelbuur, the Ethiopians are widely seen as liberators. “Al-
Shabaab call for holy war, but they start running when they hear
Ethiopia,” resident Ahmad said.

“Now we don’t see a lot of Al-Shabaab fighters in the town. I
am sure they are preparing to run away when the Ethiopian
troops close in on the town,” said Faduma Hassan, a resident in
Beledweyne, about 30 kilometers from the border.

Al-Shabaab, which is fighting to impose a harsh interpretation of
Shariah law on the nation, welcomed Sunday Ethiopia’s
apparent incursion as a sign that the Kenyan military campaign
was failing to dismantle the rebel network.

In Baidoa, about 250 kilometers northwest of the capital
Mogadishu, Al-Shabaab issued a rallying cry for holy war.

“Al-Shabaab took to the streets with loud speakers and urged
us to prepare for Jihad,” said Ali, a Baidoa resident. “They have
been warning us not to spy for the Ethiopians or for the
government,” he added.

Eritrea has complained to the United Nations Security Council
Monday about Kenyan allegations that it sent weapons to
Islamist rebels in Somalia, calling for an independent
investigation to judge the dispute.

Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said in a letter to the Council that
Eritrea was confident an investigation would find Nairobi’s
“defamatory” accusations to be baseless, and urged the United
Nations to take action against Kenya in the dispute.

Nairobi has accused Eritrea of flying in weapons for Al-
Shabaab.

“If, as Eritrea confidently believes, the investigation determines
that there is no basis whatsoever to the very serious and harmful
accusations by the government of Kenya, Eritrea calls on the
Security Council to take action that would redress the injustice
suffered by the people and government of Eritrea,” Saleh wrote
in the letter which was seen by Reuters.

“Defamation of a member state of the United Nations should not
be indulged in with impunity and must not be tolerated, given its
negative implications for regional peace and security,” he said in
the letter, dated Nov. 16.

                                     Courtesy
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