From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Aug 18 2008 - 09:02:42 EDT
Ethiopians withdrawing from Mogadishu
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:35:49 GMT
Ethiopian troops are loading their heavy weaponry onto ships at Mogadishu
port and will be heading toward Somaliland's Berbera port.
The Ethiopians are loading some 49 military tanks and 91 artillery carrier
vehicles onto ships along with thousands of soldiers, a Press TV
correspondent reported Sunday.
Also more than 5,000 Ethiopian soldiers have traveled on foot from Mogadishu
to Afgoya on their way to Baidoa town, a senior Somali government official
told Press TV on condition of anonymity. He described the move as 'a real
surprise'.
A number of Ethiopian troops, however, are still maintaining positing in
some military bases in South Mogadishu.
Ethiopian's withdrawal comes as the interim government and opposition
parties in Somalia are holing a three-day UN-backed meeting aimed at
finalizing details of a peace agreement worked out in June, ending the
hostilities that have resulted in so many deaths in a civil war that has
lasted 30 years.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since President
Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops
invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia's Transitional Federal
Government (TFG).
FTP/MMN
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