EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a glorious moment for the people of Somalia. A job well done for kicking Woyanne invaders out of your country. Ethiopian Review sends heartfelt congratulations to Somali freedom fights who stood up and fought the Woyanne fascist forces. The same fates await Woyannes in Ethiopia. They will be kicked out of our country too soon by EPPF, OLF, ONLF and other Ethiopian freedom fighters.
By Steve Bloomfield, Sunday Herald
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — SOMALIA’S FRAGILE government appears to be on the brink of collapse. Islamist insurgents now controls large parts of southern and central Somalia – and are continuing to launch attacks inside the capital, Mogadishu.
Ethiopia Woyanne, which launched a US-backed military intervention in Somalia in December 2006 in an effort to drive out an Islamist authority in Mogadishu, is now pulling out its troops.
Diplomats and analysts in neighbouring Nairobi believe the government will fall once Ethiopia Woyanne completes its withdrawal, and secret plans have been made to evacuate government ministers to neighbouring Kenya.
That may happen sooner rather than later. A shipment of Ethiopian Woyanne weapons, including tanks, left Mogadishu port last month as part of the withdrawal. Bringing the equipment back to Ethiopia by land would have been impossible – analysts believe Ethiopian Woyanne troops and their Somali government allies control just three small areas in Mogadishu and a few streets in Baidoa, the seat of parliament. There are now estimated to be just 2500 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers left inside Somalia, down from 15,000-18,000 at the height of the war.
Somalia’s overlapping conflicts go back, at the very least, to 1991, the year the country’s last recognised government was overthrown. Men and women who were children then have since given birth to a second generation of Somalis who have known only war.
But analysts believe Somalia is now in the midst of its worst ever crisis. The ongoing conflict, which has claimed the lives of at least 9000 civilians and forced more than 1.1 million to flee their homes, has combined with devastating droughts and rocketing food prices to create one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes.
Almost half the population – 3.2m people – are in need of emergency aid (the figure has almost doubled in the last 12 months). One in six children is thought to be malnourished.
“This crisis is broadening as well as deepening,” said Mark Bowden, the head of the UN’s humanitarian effort. “It is now the world’s most complicated crisis.”
Violence and insecurity have made it almost impossible for aid to get through, and 24 aid workers have been killed in Somalia so far this year. A recent shipment of food aid needed a military escort to navigate Somalia’s pirate-infested waters. But within hours of the food being unloaded in Mogadishu’s port most of it was stolen by gun-toting gangs.
Oxfam, Save The Children and 50 other aid agencies working in Somalia last week said the international community had “completely failed Somali civilians”.
As the crisis worsens thousands are trying to leave the country every week. Around 6000 people are now crossing the border into Kenya every month – despite the Kenyan government’s decision to close the border. Some are arriving at the overcrowded Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, which is now one of the largest refugee camps in the world with nearly 250,000 people.
Others try to leave by sea, travelling to the northern town of Bosasso and paying $100 to people smugglers who ram more than 100 people onto a small fishing boat and set sail for Yemen.
Many do not make it. Smugglers last week forced 150 people off the boat three miles off the Yemeni coast. Only 47 made it to shore.
Attempts to find a political solution have stalled. The UN claims progress has been made, citing an agreement signed in neighbouring Djibouti by the Somali government and the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS).
But the deal has been signed only by the moderates on each side: Prime Minister Nur Adde and the ARS’s Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord who controls the government’s security forces, has refused to get involved. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the hardline Islamic leader of another faction of the ARS, has denounced the deal, as have the leaders of the insurgents, a group called Al Shabaab.
Since the deal was struck in June, the level of violence has increased.
Few Somalis will weep if the government falls. In most respects it is a government in name only. Few ministries have offices, let alone civil servants to fill them. There are no real policies – and no real way to implement any.
Worst of all, this government, which is backed by the United Nations and funded by Western donors including Britain and the EU, has been accused of committing a litany of war crimes. Its police force, many of whom were trained under a UN programme part-funded by Britain, has carried out extrajudicial killings, raped women and fired indiscriminately on crowds at markets. Militias aligned to the government have killed journalists and attacked aid workers.
The government’s fall would mark the end of a disastrous US-backed intervention. For six months in 2006, Somalia was relatively calm. A semblance of peace and security had returned to Mogadishu. The reason was the rise of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a loose coalition of Islamist leaders who had driven out Mogadishu’s warlords.
Hardline elements within the UIC vowed to launch a jihad against Somalia’s traditional enemy, Ethiopia. The US viewed the UIC has an “al-Qaeda cell” – a belief not shared by the majority of analysts and diplomats.
Ethiopia Woyanne, with the support of the US, sent thousands of troops across the border to drive out the UIC. It took just a few days to defeat them. Their leaders fled towards the border with Kenya, while many of the fighters took off their uniforms and melted into Mogadishu.
Within weeks, an Iraq-style insurgency had begun, targeting Somali government and Ethiopian troops. Al Shabaab began laying roadside bombs and firing at Ethiopian troops from inside civilian areas.
The Ethiopians Woyanne responded by bombarding residential areas. Hundreds were killed and hundreds of thousands fled Mogadishu. Human rights groups accused Ethiopia Woyanne of committing war crimes.
The US must now be wondering whether it was all worth it. Western backing for the unpopular Somali government and US support for the Ethiopian Woyanne intervention has created a groundswell of anti-West sentiment in Somalia.
The Islamist leaders they were so keen to oust are the same ones they are now engaged in negotiations with. US officials have met both Sheikh Sharif and the more hardline Sheikh Aweys in an effort to find a peace deal.
Meanwhile, in Somalia, the Islamists taking control of towns and villages across the country are considered far more extremist than Aweys. “They are real international jihadis,” said one Nairobi-based diplomat. “The Americans’ fear of al-Qaeda in Somalia is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
25 thoughts on “Meles orders full withdrawal from Somalia”
Thank you ethrev.com for your nice words and moral support.
The Hawiye tribe of Somalia is once again victorious.
15 years after “Black Hawk Down” now they kicked Woyanne’s ass and taught them a lesson that they will never forget.
I feel sorry for the loss of lives on both sides. The Somali news media reports almost daily dozen deaths of the Meles soldiers in Somalia either by IEDS or by direct fire fight with the opposing forces. Only today the death toll was 12 soldiers from the Woyanne invading troops as reported in Somali media. They also reported a number of Urals(Russian made trucks transporting troops) destroyed by land mines around Mogadishu.
The mercenaries Meles and his entourage do not care about the death and the destruction of the poor men and women of uniform that they send to their death in Somalia. The only thing that they care about is the blood money from Washington that they are stuffing in their bottomless pockets.
I hope the Ethiopian people will demand the immediate resignation of Meles Zenawi, so that and his cronies could be brought to justice for the crimes he committed against humanity both in Ethiopia and in Somalia.
LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES OF SOMALIA AND ETHIOPIA!
Retarded meles.
Meles is a war criminal and while he was in power ,he did in genocide in Ethiopia particularly ,addisababa,Gambella,oromia,afar,and the present genocide in Ogaden.
We Ethiopians let we unite and remove this cancer about our proud nation,let we try to heal the wounds before there is no medication.
Let we come reality and remove this crimanal gangs in in our leadership.
GOOOD NEWS FOR ETHIOPIAN.WILL CONTINUE IN ETHIOPIA AS WELL.
VICTORY FOR THE OPPRESSED PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA
Thanks EThiopianReview!
proud hawiye isku xishood oo marka aan mareegaha ajinabiga ku jirno inaga daa qabiilka walaal. Woyyane Somali oo dhan bay cadow u yihiin oo la dagaalamaysa. Maxaa kuu diiday Proud Somali!
Can the Ethiopians do what the Somaians are doing to weyane–the modern slaves of the 21st century! Please takea lesson from Somalians! the slaves weyane tried everything they practiced in Ethiopia for last 17 years; the practice of divide and rule, the practice of so called democracy, the practice of so called constitution, and the practice of so called parliament but the brave Somlians never bought such bogus practice; instead they defended their land and dignity and above all they responded to weyane with the only language they understand- FIGHT BACK!
Guess what is going to happen now. Meles is reinforcing his army to invade Eritrea. Mark my words.
ethiopian withdrawal is good. ethiopia should spend its meager resource in battling poverty and let the somales settle their problem.
Yes. Woyane should be punished!
Woooooow what a great achievement for the freedom fighters of somalia. This is a proof that, woyane is nothing but a bunch of cowards.
This dev’t will be invaluably uplifting for the ethiopian freedom fighters too.
Down with woyane tigray bandas
Victory is near for the Somali people. This war started in Somalia and will be ended in addis ababa/finfinne. Its a neccessary step for peace and freedom for all the opressed people in the horn.
Peace and freedom will prevail. Noone can stop the will of Somali people. Our will is peacefull Somalia.
so what next? talk ,talk about woyane again?
It is also victory to the Ethiopian people who unfortunately seem to have been cursed to have their young people wasted in foreign and meanigless wars just to appease the ruling powers of the day. Congratulation Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Of course, a big congratulation goes to our Somali brothers and sisters as well for standing up to their God given right and fough bravely to a Super Power supported evil Weyane’s army! Someone above commented that next would be Eritrea. I hope not for the simple reason that the Eritrean and Ethiopian people do not need another “Sensless” war. Although, I believe the Tigrai gangs have learned a bloody lesson by their previous blanders, I guess one can never say “Never”. Especially with Weyane’s inferiority complex syndrome anything is possible albeit sucidal!
But, for the sake of our peoples, let’s hope that, for a change, reason to prevail over desperate manuvering! The only win-win situation is for Ethiopia and Eritrea to work for peaceful co-existence and enshalah Free and United Somalia may soon join us too! We keep our fingers crossed!
elleelllelllelllelllelllllleeeeeeee
Well, your celebration can not last much. If the Islamists get to power, they will have no recognition except from Iran and Eriteria. The two shall be checked through economic embargo that will be imposed by UN and the Islamists shall starve to death. No one with his right mind accept an out dated Islamist regime to exist.
The brutish Zenawi’s forces have been depleted both in numbers and resources. They’ve already sustained concussion from their ill-advised Somali invasion. The concussion makes them lose their concious control. When they cross the border, They will start selling their guns to local Ethiopians as they were doing in Somalia. Ethiopians please make sure he/she doesn’t just sell his/her gun, but attempt to acquire his/her service to join the liberation movements. Though unconcious, but still have the experience(modern urban warfare) they learned from somalia. So, use them help you remove this despotic ruler.
Meles the genius tactician who wanted to give a lesson to the West on how to conduct a clean invasion and pacification of another country is leaving Somalia with his tails between his legs??? How disappointing…
“We will leave a pacified Somalia within weeks.” He said in December 2006. It was then obvious that, as a “seasoned guerrilleros” and “strategy thinker” (à la Giap), he wanted to show the Americans and the Europeans that the way they were conducting their operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is amateurish.
We have have to understand that when he fell out of favor with Western leaders following the events of election 2005, his megalomaniac self was hurt, badly hurt. He looked forward for an opportunity to redeem himself and show the world he is not a petty dictator. Somalia, he thought, was an opportunity to impress his masters.
One aspect that keeps amazing me is for a guerrilla group like the TPLF that allegedly “defeated the largest army in Africa”, to use the same politics of scorched earth used by the Derg, a tactic doomed to failure against a relatively motivated guerrilla group. The slight difference they have with Derg is that they apply this technique to a much gruesome level: killing civilians indiscriminately, raping (unheard of in the Ethiopian army), beheading (this is fascinating!!). For a group which boast 17 years of fight in the bush, common wisdom would have us believe that they would know a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t in a guerrilla warfare. The only thing they were able to achieve in Somalia (and currently in Ogaden)is bring the level of destruction and mayhem to a new high.
Which makes me wonder: did they really defeat the Derg army in 1991 or did that army collapse by itself?
Which jungle or cage could shield Agazee killers now? They can run, but they can not escape – the Somali will chase the killers to their graves. The child rapist and butchers from Tigray will face vendetta from all sides!
Meles forces have been effectively neutralized in Somalia.
As the old saying goes:
“You can start a war whenever you want, but you can not stop it whenever you want.”
It is a victory to the somalia people who fighting in homeland to meles and his regime
It is a victory to the somalia people who fighting in homeland to meles and his regime!!!
First and foremost congratulations to the heroic men and women of Somaia for re-liberating their homeland from the jaws of the servant of U.S administration particularly the neocolonialists who else Weyane who raped and killed thousands of SOMALIS for the last two bitter and long years.At the same time a message for Ethiopians who see their people been humiliated their country been disintegrated and seeds of hate been distributed on purpose to help the criminal weyane stay in power that it does not take long and is not hard to bury this monster when you have the majority masses supporting you.Some easy logic Weyane is hated by all Eritreans,all Somalis,all Ethiopians except the few HODAMOTCH. TRAITORS,AND FOREIGN MERCENARIES.
zenawi ‘your last days are numbered “
Demoze,
your comment sounds the coolest and smartest,
would you please educate us what this development means to the political future of Ethiopia and the whole of Africa ?
I heard meles had some 2500 troops in Somalia recently and
now he is pulling them out still there are far more foreign troops stationed in Somalia,well over 4000 from Uganda and other African countries.
An islamic extremist government in Somalia with close contacts with al qaeda would not be a good thing for both Somalia and the neighbouring countries.
And now meles is defeated in Somalia how can the opposition
gain from this momentum and liberate Ethiopia from weyanes,the worst leadership in Ethiopian history ?
How could this be best exploited by the opposition in Ethiopia, both armed and unarmed ?
And would this development mean less support by the USA and other western forces for meles ?
thanks
What rubish talk you talk. I can not understand how Ethiopia will benefit from this lose. It seems just a blind hatred of Woyane, without considering the repurcussions this withdrawal may have in the Eastern part of Ethiopia. I do not think Ethiopian troops(whatevere name you give them they are Ethiopians) went in to Somlaia for killing Somalians. But to avert the diverse effect it can have on the stability of Ethiopia. Any one who can be happy about this development is worse than Woyane. I can not see why any one can rejoice looking at the looming catastrophe. Remember what the Ogaden Secessionists did and doing around the Somali region and all over the country. It seems all those dying from their bombs and explosives too are woyanes from your point of view. Shame on you
Tedlaye! Fringe elements like you are not worth debating. Did you forget the massacres in Addis Ababa following the stolen elections, the mass arrests and tortures that the Woyanne had perpetrated against Ethiopian people? Do you know why it is only in Ethiopia that such a regime can still be in power unscathed but not anywhere else in the world? It is because of boneheads like you