Reports: Ethiopian Troops Back In Somalia
5/19/2009 12:43 PM ET
(RTTNews) - Ethiopian troops have re-entered Somalia after leaving the country in January, and have stationed themselves in a border town, said witnesses and local news reports on Tuesday.

They said that Ethiopian troops have crossed over the border into Somalia and have taken control of the border town of Kalabeyr, and have set up check posts there. Witnesses said that they recognized the Ethiopian troops by their language and uniforms.

However, both Ethiopian and Somali governments denied the reports. While the Somali interim government denied the report as a part of the Islamic militants' propaganda campaign, the Ethiopian government described it as a "fabricated story."

If confirmed, it marks the return of Ethiopian forces to Somalia after a gap of four months since their withdrawal in January. Ethiopia had send thousands of its soldiers to Somalia in December 2006 to assist the weak Somali interim government in its fight against the powerful Islamic militia.

Though the Ethiopian troops, along with their Somali counter parts, had succeeded in recapturing the country's capital city of Mogadishu from the Islamists, their presence in the country is largely unpopular among Somalis.
The Ethiopian troop withdrawal from Somali in January came as per a UN-brokered peace deal signed between interim government of Somalia and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) in late October 2008, which required their withdrawal from Somalia.

The Tuesday's reports of the re-entry of Ethiopian troops into Somalia comes as the Islamic militants there are making serious progress in their armed campaign against the western-backed Somali interim government.

The latest attacks by the Islamist militants is aimed at overthrowing Somalia's interim government led by President Ahmed, who had agreed in March to enforce Islamic law in the country to appease the militants after they seized control of many major towns in southern and central Somalia, including Baidoa, the seat of the Somali interim government.

The al-Shabaab group, a military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces two years ago, and several other allied militants groups have opposed past UN-sponsored reconciliation efforts in Somalia, and insist that they will negotiate with the country's transitional government only after the AU peacekeeping mission leaves Somalia.

Currently, a 4,300-strong AU force is struggling with their peacekeeping efforts in Somalia after the ousted Islamist fighters turned to guerrilla warfare against the government and AU troops. So far only Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops to the AU peacekeeping force, which was initially planned to have strength of over 8,000.