MareegOnline
NAIROBI, KENYA – Somali Prime Minister Nur Hasan Hussein (Nur Adde) has told some Somali MPs that the Ethiopian government Woyanne was causing trouble for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG)
The prime minister issued this remarks following a meeting with the foreign ministers of IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority for development) chaired by Ethiopia TPLF.
The premier did not explain the Ethiopian Woyanne’s plans and the way they are causing problem between (leaders) of the TFG, but he said will use the parliament to face this issue.
The MPs who received the information from Nur Adde told Mareeg website that the premier appeared to have been discouraged by the meeting between the TFG and IGAD foreign ministers.
Reports also indicate that the premier held a meeting with his advisers over Ethiopian Woyanne’s plans but Mareeg did not get the details of what was discussed in the meeting.
According to informed sources, Ethiopia Woyanne accused some of the leaders of the TFG of violating the interim Charter and being against restoration of peace in Somalia.
Any way, the issues that will be discussed in the summit are not clear and no body can guess its outcome, but it seems that it touched some very sensitive issues
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, New York Times
NAIROBI, Kenya — Suicide attacks rocked government and United Nations offices in two regions of northern Somalia on Wednesday, killing or wounding dozens of people and shattering a sense of relative calm there, according to officials and witnesses.
Five suicide car bomb attackers struck within fifteen minutes in Hargeisa, the capital of breakaway Somaliland, and in Bosasso, in Puntland, said Faisal Hayle, a security official in Mogadishu for the transitional government of Somalia.
Several buildings were leveled by the attacks, and there were casualties inside the crushed structures. According to Mr. Faisal, the bombers struck at 10:30 a.m., attacking the intelligence headquarters in both Bosasso and Hargeisa, and also an Ethiopian Woyanne consulate office and a United Nations office in Hargeisa.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Mr. Faisal blamed a militant Islamic group called the Shabab, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.
The Shabab has been waging a relentless war against Somalia’s weak transitional government, but most of their attacks have been confined to south central Somalia. Hargeisa, in northern Somalia, had until now been considered an oasis of peace and stability, and the gunmen that haunt the streets of the rest of Somalia are absent there.
The local government has been credited with setting up a small but functioning democracy, and delivering a modicum of peace and safety to more than a million people. Hargeisa is also home to several United Nations agencies. Neighboring Puntland is a semi-autonomous area known increasingly as a center of piracy and kidnapping.
In a statement on Wednesday, the United Nations Development Program said a suicide bomber had entered its compound in Hargeisa and there were known casualties and deaths but no precise figures for the toll.
The attack may have been timed to coincide with a meeting underway in Nairobi, Kenya, between Somalia’s transitional leaders and foreign forces supporting them. Militant Islamic groups were not invited to the talks and organizations such as the Shabab have shunned the talks. The militant group says it wants to turn Somalia into an Islamic state and has demanded the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops TPLF.
Ethiopian Woyanne forces have been backing Somalia’s transitional government and have been one of the targets of previous suicide attacks claimed by the Shabab. Last year, there were several large suicide attacks on EthiopianTPLF-Somali government army bases, but there has never been such a coordinated assault with five suicide attacks in a single day.
Witnesses in Hargeisa said that many of the buildings that had been hit were badly damaged with dozens of dead and wounded. Mr. Faisal said that authorities in Bosasso were still trying to determine how many people had been killed but, he said, “it looks very bad.”
MOGADISHU (AFP)
Somalia’s radical insurgents on Monday vowed to fight on despite Addis Ababa’s Woyanne’s pledge to respect a UN-sponsored deal reached a day earlier that allows for a pullback of Ethiopian TPLF troops Thugs.
The Somali government and an Islamist opposition umbrella group on Sunday agreed to implement a dormant June ceasefire, paving the way for pro-government Ethiopian Woyanne troops to pull back from the country.
But Mukhtar Robow, a spokesman for Shebab militants, said: “We have already rejected the (peace) conference and its agreements. We are now saying again that we will not accept them.
“We will continue fighting against the enemies of Allah,” he told reporters in Mogadishu.
The accord calls for Ethiopian Woyanne troops to pull out of areas in Mogadishu and the central garrison town of Beledweyne by November 21, leaving them under the control of African Union troops in Somalia (AMISOM).
Under the deal, the Somali government and opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) are to assemble a 10,000-strong police force to help the peacekeepers control the areas.
Ethiopia Woyanne said it would respect the agreement.
“We will respect this encouraging decision reached by the transitional government of Somalia and the ARS,” Wahide Belay, a foreign ministry spokesman Woyanne puppet, told AFP.
“The agreement is in line with the Ethiopian Woyanne position on orderly troop withdrawal,” he said.
Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s arch-rival Eritrea said Somalia’s stability required “the immediate, unconditional and full withdrawal of the occupying Ethiopian TPLF army,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Ethiopia Woyanne “not only exacerbated the situation but also committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it added.
Asmara also called for the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers Dictators-R-us toy-solders, accusing them of being “a party to the conflict.”
Regional leaders will this week meet in Kenya to discuss the Ethiopian Woyanne’s pullback retreat, a key demand of the Shebab insurgents Somali freedom fighters who are continuing to fight in Mogadishu.
The meeting, organised by the Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD), will attempt to reconcile warring factions.
The meeting is “a build-up of the UN talks in Djibouti. We shall discuss agreements reached there, including implementing the ceasefire and Ethiopian Woyanne troop pullout,” an IGAD spokesman told AFP.
And another source inside IGAD said: “The conference will recommend ways of dealing with the Shebab and bringing the group into the peace process.”
Shebab rebels Somali Freedom Fighters have refused to participate in the talks and recognize the accords until Ethiopian forces Woyanne withdraw from the country, with one leading Islamist, Hassan Dahir Aweys, rejecting the June agreement.
Foreign ministers from IGAD nations — Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia — would meet both factions on Tuesday before a presidents’ summit on Wednesday, the IGAD spokesman said.
A delegation from the ARS, dominated by moderate Islamists and based in Eritrea, was also expected to attend the meeting, he added.
Details of the Ethiopian pullback Woyanne retreat would be worked out by the two governments, IGAD and the United Nations, said officials.
In the capital meanwhile, the violence continued Monday.
Two people were killed in fighting that erupted after EthiopiaWoyanne-backed Somali forces raided rebel hideouts in northern Mogadishu, witnesses said.
Ethiopian troops TPLF Thugs intervened to prop up the feeble Somali government at the end of 2006 and eventually drove theIslamists Freedom Fighters from much of the country’s southern and central regions, where they had established Sharia law.
Since then, the Islamists Freedom Fighters have killed numerous government officials and vowed to fight until the Ethiopians TPLF and AMISOM troops, whom they regard as occupiers, withdraw.
Somali lawmakers, who have already endorsed the agreements, expressed support for the accords.
“We are always for peace and it has been proven beyond doubt that reconciliation is the only way out of the conflicts,” said Musa Sudi Yalahow, a former Mogadishu warlord and now a lawmaker.
Somali has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. A resultant power struggle has defied numerous UN-backed attempts to end violence and restore a functional government.
By Bonny Apunyu, SomaliNet
Intense battle erupted on Saturday morning in Somalia in an area between Lego and Yaqbariweyne in the Bay region (south) when Al-Shabaab forces ambushed Ethiopian TPLF and Somali government troops heading to the capital, Mogadishu, residents said.
Sheikh Muqtar Robow Abu Mansorsaid, Al-Shabaab spokesman told reporters in a teleconference that their troops were responsible for the attack, claiming that they chased away the country’s troops and their Ethiopian Woyanne allies.
“This morning Allah’s forces waged an ambush attack against Allah’s enemy,” Abu Mansor said.
“One of our solders died and four others were wounded but we chased them and forced them to retreat,” he added.
Heavy weapons and machine guns could be heard in the surroundings, according to residents.
“Early in the morning we heard sounds of heavy weapons and we thought of a battle between Ethiopian TPLF and Islamist forces Somali Freedom-fighters” Anab Mumin, resident in Lego told APA by phone.
Abdirihim Hussein another resident near Yaqbariweyne told APA “I was near the battle area and I narrowly escaped. I thought I would die.”
South and central Somali regions have been the hardest-hit with insurgents’ attacks, including roadside bombing and guerrilla war against the government forces and their Ethiopian TPLF allies.
Somalia is plunged into anarchy since the overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, when warlords used their clan based militias to remove him.
Thereafter , they started to fight one another as they could not agree on leadership.
As a result, many Somalians have died and others are displaced in their own country.-APA
Fresh off their successful event, “Poety night” with the ‘youth league,’ below are the top 10 events Birtukan Mideksa and her UDJ (Andinet Party) are currently organizing:
10. Non Violence Poetry night Part II
9. Peaceful stand up comedy night
8. Non violence Magic Show
7. Peaceful Baking Contest
6. Peaceful Dance Contest
5. Non violence Fashion Show
4. Peaceful donkey riding contest
3. Non violence marshal arts show
2. Dalai Lama spiritual warfare training
1. Peaceful warfare techniques symposium
Stay tuned for more ‘peaceful’ struggle by UDJ.
Tags: UDJ, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
