[dehai-news] (AFP) Ethiopian troops to pull out of Somalia by early 2009: UN


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat Oct 25 2008 - 18:11:36 EDT


Ethiopian troops to pull out of Somalia by early 2009: UN
 
Sun Oct 26, 12:41 PM
 
NAIROBI (AFP) - Ethiopian troops are to pull out of Somalia by early
next year under a deal signed Sunday in Djibouti by the Somali
government and the Islamist opposition, a UN spokeswoman said here.
 
The accord was signed by the government and the Alliance for the
Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) at UN-sponsored talks in Djibouti, said
Susannah Price, spokeswoman for the top UN envoy to Somalia.
 

Both sides agreed that Ethiopian troops would initially pull out of
areas in Mogadishu and the central town of Beledweyne on November 21,
leaving them under the control of African Union troops in Somalia
(AMISOM).
 

The agreement said that "the second phase of Ethiopian troop withdrawal
should be completed within 120 days," though Price was unable to say
when exactly the 120-day countdown would begin.
 

Sunday's agreement resurrected a June 9 ceasefire deal agreed between
the government and ARS, an opposition umbrella group dominated by
Islamists and based in the Eritrean capital of Asmara.
 

Its implementation had been delayed after fighting flared up across the
Horn of Africa nation.
 

A string of previous peace initiatives and truce deals have failed to
stabilise the country, which has been plagued by an uninterrupted civil
war since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
 

Ethiopian forces have been in Somalia since they deployed alongside
beleaguered Somali government troops in 2006 and succeeded in ousting
Islamists from south and central Somalia where they had imposed Sharia
law.
 

Islamists insurgents have waged a guerrilla war since then, which
according to international rights groups and aid agencies has left
thousands of civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands, mainly
in the capital Mogadishu.
 
  <http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/03a36kodvOgXn/610x.jpg>


610x.jpg

         ----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----


New Message Reply About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2008
All rights reserved