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| Africa Horn |
| Ethiopia adds caveat to plan for Somalia pullout |
| 2008-12-08 |
| Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, which recently announced that it would pull its troops out of Somalia by the end of the year, said Saturday it could extend its deployment by "a few days." Ethiopia's hasty withdrawal plan had sowed panic among the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), whose peacekeepers are to take over security duties but need more preparation time. "Ethiopia accepted it had a moral obligation to AMISOM and it would do whatever necessary to see that its withdrawal did not harm AMISOM," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "This did not imply any delay in withdrawal but might allow for some flexibility in terms of a few days, if necessary, but this would be for AMISOM to assess." Ethiopia announced a week ago that it had deemed it "inappropriate" for its troops to remain in Somalia, citing notably a lack of progress in peace efforts and deep rifts within the interim government it came to prop up two years earlier. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union, a hard-line group which controled most of the country and was imposing a strict form of Sharia law. - |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Is this a coincidence? Or are the Ethiopians getting the heck outa Dodge before Bush leaves office? |
| Posted by: Clinter Wittlesbach3525 2008-12-08 23:06 |