More Ethiopian troops seen in central
Somalia: residents

28 November, 2011 | By Mohamed Ahmed and Abdi Sheikh
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - New convoys of heavily-armed
Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia and are heading for
central areas, residents said on Sunday, days after Addis Ababa
said it planned to send troops to help Somali and Kenya forces
fighting Islamist insurgents.

    Ethiopia, which intervened in Somalia
    between 2006 and 2009, said on
    Friday that it would deploy troops
    inside Somalia again for a "brief
    period".

    An Ethiopian government official also
    acknowledged on Friday that a small
    force was already there on a
    reconnaissance mission. Ethiopia had
    previously denied scores of military
    trucks and armoured vehicles had
    entered Somalia on November 19
    and 20.

    On Sunday, residents from towns in
    central Somalia said they had seen
    new, larger convoys.

"We have seen heavily armed Ethiopian troops with tanks
heading to Guriel and Baladwayne. There are many more of
them and (they are) more armed than last week," Ahmed
Muhudin Ugas told Reuters from Balanbal town.

"Since yesterday afternoon I counted over 100 armed trucks
with tanks; their convoy has not stopped yet."

A senior official with the pro-Mogadishu Sufi militia group Ahlu
Sunna Waljamaca also confirmed the deployment.

"Yes, Ethiopian troops are here and more have entered central
Somalia," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters
by phone. "Al Shabaab will be ousted from central Somalia but
when and how are political points we do not want to disclose
now."

Kenya sent troops into Somalia last month to crush al Shabaab,
accusing the militant network of frequent attacks on its security
forces and tourists inside Kenya.

Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left
the country in early 2009 after ousting the Islamist Islamic
Courts Union (ICU) from de facto power in Mogadishu.

They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely
unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al
Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.

This time, Ethiopia insists the deployment will be brief, although
it has not given details on the size of the contingent.

Another resident in Guriel, in the central Galgadud region, said
he had seen two different convoys of Ethiopian forces.

"Last night there was a convoy of Ethiopian troops that reached
the town," Abdinur Osman Moalim told Reuters. "I don't know
their number, but early in the morning we saw more than 40
vehicles of armed Ethiopian troops."

                                      Courtesy
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