Like so many villagers from Kufansik, these young girls are beneficiaries of the developmental water project sponsored by CRS (Catholic Relief Services), USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) and the Ethiopian Catholic Church.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Groggy from 24 hours of travel, I step outside into cool twilight in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. My nostrils fill with the pungent scent of what I learn are hundreds of small eucalyptus-fed cooking fires; my eyes fill with a crowd of people jamming the pedestrian entrance to the airport parking lot, praying, greeting, disputing, waiting or picking a path through visitors and vehicles.
Much of the language is unfamiliar to me. There are dozens of cultural groups and 12 official languages in this ancient country, which counts the Bible’s Queen of Sheba among its rulers and the oldest evidence of human life among its treasures.
Once in the hotel van, I peer over the driver’s shoulder to glimpse dissolving silhouettes of tall buildings and a ring of distant purple mountains, but it is what the headlights reveal in our stop-and-go progress that rivets my attention.
With few streetlights, the headlights become spotlights on an urban stage, illuminating people standing, crouching and reclining along the dusty streets as darkness falls. For a moment the beams pick out two women, covered head to toe in pale fabric, sitting side by side, their arms locked around each other, their faces buried in each other’s necks in a way that speaks of desperation and grief.
The morning light, and days of travel within Ethiopia, further illuminate the rich diversity and stark contrasts of this historic African country, where skinny sheep and goats crop bits of grass along the streets of the capital while, nearby, machine-gun carrying federal police stand guard on the verdantly overgrown perimeter of the presidential palace.
A boy stands in front of one of the characteristic mud houses found in the village of Kufansik. (Photos By Susan Stevenot Sullivan/Archdiocese of Atlanta)
A week in Ethiopia with a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) advocacy delegation becomes a baptism in the complex framework of resources and challenges which can mean life or death for families and communities. Beyond the sacramental sign is the stark reality that, for many Ethiopians, life or death is about water.
In the highland areas outside Dire Dawa, the country’s second largest city, the villagers of Kufansik gather to share dance, song, food and individual testimony about new life made possible by participation in a multifaceted development project sponsored by CRS, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). A village elder holds high a bottle of murky, algae-garnished water in one hand and a bottle of safe, clear water in the other—evidence of the transformation.
The dramatic highland vistas are steep, so torrents from two annual rainy seasons cascade down the slopes, eroding the soil and causing deadly floods in more densely populated lowland areas miles away. Terracing the slopes with local stones slows the runoff, allowing the moisture to sink in and benefit crops and shrubs, which further slows the erosion and retains more moisture.
A well, drilled years ago for Kersa Woreda, was designed so that water could be pumped to a site above Kufansik and then flow by gravity to common spigots. According to Bekele Abaire, CRS program manager for water and sanitation in Ethiopia, over the years the “recharging” of ground water due to terracing and land management has tripled the volume of water coming through the wellhead. The increased capacity has meant other villages could be added to the project, which includes education in sanitation practices, such as family latrine pits destined to become planting sites for fast-growing trees. Today, more than 27,000 people depend on this system for life-giving water.
The villagers of Kufansik testify to the benefits of these development initiatives in terms of healthy children, thriving livestock, and more food security through their ability to adequately feed their families and increase their resilience to rainfall variations which previously meant disaster.
This is critical in a country where most people live in rural areas on what they can grow from inadequate plots of ground. Ethiopia has one of the shortest life expectancies in the world at 46 years. More than half of Ethiopia’s children are stunted by inadequate nutrition; 600 die each day of hunger and preventable disease. In rural areas, 80 percent of residents have no access to safe water. Famine is an historic and contemporary reality and illiteracy limits livelihood for more than 80 percent of women and 60 percent of men.
So the bright baskets of Kufansik, piled with the national flatbread “injera” and heaps of juicy fruit, washed down with cups of rich milk by visitors, are not only a form of generous hospitality, but further evidence of new life and hope. Such transformation is possible when short-term emergency assistance is paired with long-term development projects and partnerships that reach from villages in Africa, through networks such as CRS, to neighbors in the United States.
Six of the 75-member CRS Ethiopian program staff stand in a conference room at their headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
During 50 years of work by CRS in Ethiopia, the same development principles have been used in the sandy, arid regions south of Dire Dawa, home to pastoralists seeking graze for their goats and sheep. Camels, and sometimes people, loaded with firewood and other goods for market are a common sight in this rugged, rocky terrain. Overgrazing accelerates the erosion and desiccation of the soil. Terracing and fencing off watershed and crop areas with thorny acacia branches allows the soil moisture to rebuild.
As visitors approach the village of Legedini and its development projects, taller trees, thicker scrub and patches of grass clothe the hills with life-giving green. A deep pond comes into view, its banks alive with sleek sheep, goats, donkeys and even cattle, slaking their thirst under the eyes of youthful herders.
Interconnected projects, addressing everything from water and soil management to seed, health and homemaking, have transformed life for the people of Legedini.
Nuria Umere confidently gives a tour of her neatly organized, one-room, stone and earth home. A neighbor describes the seeds and techniques which resulted in extra food, which he sold to buy animals to fatten, which he then sold to buy new seed and put money in the bank for the future. Now, he says, he does not spend all day searching for wood for his wife to carry miles into town to sell for whatever she can get for it; now there is food, and his children go to school instead of hiking to carry water.
In Ethiopia, Catholics are less than 0.5 percent of the population, which is predominately Orthodox Christian and Muslim, yet the dioceses of the Ethiopian Catholic Church play an outsized role, partnering to save lives and increase food security and health. Bishops, such as Woldetensae Ghebreghiorgis of Harar, must navigate challenging political situations, interfaith and ecumenical considerations and all manner of logistical and resource challenges to support this prophetic work of love for God and neighbor. The program staff of CRS and the dioceses travel rough roads, reaching out time and again to forge and maintain relationships which make engineering and agricultural know-how yield potable water and consistent crops.
A woman from the village of Kufansik holds a bottle of murky water in her left hand, a sample of villagers’ only form of drinking water in the past. In her right hand she holds a bottle of the clean, safe drinking water available to them today. Kufansik is in the highlands outside of Dire Dawa, the country’s second largest city.
The future of such vital initiatives includes partnerships of concept as well as that of resources and national policy. Emergency aid, from such U.S. legislation as the Farm Bill and PEPFAR, must be paired with development aid; local survival and self-determination must be accompanied by national and international concern and respect; military initiatives must not muddy the waters of humanitarian assistance; religious differences must not obscure a common understanding of the value of human life and dignity. Government funds are vital, but so is support CRS receives from parishioners all over the United States.
There is hope and heartbreak in this beautiful and difficult country. Both are visible in the faces of the orphans, some of the 800 to 1,000 destitute and dying people finding refuge in the Missionaries of Charity’s compound in Addis Ababa, one of 17 MOC centers in this country. Despite horrifying ordeals, the children eagerly stretch their arms out to strangers, beaming.
Sister Benedicta, MOC superior in Ethiopia, gives visitors a holy card with a prayer in Amharic on one side and a traditional Ethiopian-style painting of the crucifixion on the other.
Under the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ can be seen, in English, “I thirst” and “I satiate.” In the streets of Addis Ababa the smoke from eucalyptus cooking fires rises like incense, a prayer for hope and help.
Susan Stevenot Sullivan, the director of Catholic Relief Services for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, visited Ethiopia with a CRS delegation in August. She is also diocesan director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, JustFaith, Justice for Immigrants and Parish Social Ministry for Catholic Charities.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This could be the beginning of the end of the Woyanne vampire regime. The people of Ethiopia stand in solidarity with the brave Somali freedom fighters. Ethiopian freedom fighters such as EPPF, ONLF, OLF, and TPDM will finish off Woyanne once they get their acts together — hopefully soon.
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By Andrew Cawthorne
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Nearly two years after being driven from Mogadishu, Islamists have re-taken swathes of south Somalia and may have their sights again on the capital.
The insurgents’ push is being led by Al Shabaab, or “Youth” in Arabic, the most militant in a wide array of groups opposed to the Somali government and military backers from Ethiopia, an ally in Washington’s “War on Terror”.
“Shabaab are winning. They have pursued a startlingly successful two-pronged strategy — chase all the internationals from the scene, and shift tactics from provocation to conquest,” said a veteran Somali analyst in the region.
“Before it was ‘hit-and-run’ guerrilla warfare. Now it’s a case of ‘we’re here to stay’,” he added, noting Shabaab was “flooded with money” from foreign backers.
The Islamist insurgency since early 2007, the latest instalment in Somalia’s 17-year civil conflict, has worsened one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises and fomented instability around the already chronically volatile Horn region.
Shabaab’s advances are galling to Washington, which says the group is linked to al Qaeda and has put it on its terrorism list. Western security services have long worried about Somalia becoming a haven for extremists, though critics — and the Islamists — say that threat has been fabricated to disguise U.S. aims to keep control, via Ethiopia, in the region.
Some compare the Somali quagmire to Iraq in character, if not scale, given its appeal to jihadists, the involvement of foreign troops and the tactics used by the rebels.
In August, in its most significant grab of a gradual territorial encroachment, Shabaab spearheaded the takeover of Kismayu, a strategic port and south Somalia’s second city.
This month, its threats to shoot down planes have largely paralysed Mogadishu airport. And in recent days, its fighters have been targeting African peacekeepers.
“The only question is ‘what next?” said a diplomat, predicting Shabaab would next seek to close Mogadishu port and take control of Baidoa town, the seat of parliament.
Analysts say Islamists or Islamist-allied groups now control most of south Somalia, with the exception of Mogadishu, Baidoa where parliament is protected by Ethiopian Woyanne troops, and Baladwayne near the border where Addis Ababa garrisons soldiers.
That is a remarkable turnaround from the end of 2006, when allied Somali-Ethiopian Woyanne troops chased the Islamists out of Mogadishu after a six-month rule of south Somalia, scattering them to sea, remote hills and the Kenyan border.
The Islamists regrouped to begin an insurgency that has killed nearly 10,000 civilians. Military discipline, grassroots political work, youth recruitment and an anti-Ethiopian Woyanne rallying cry have underpinned their return, analysts say.
With the Islamists split into many rival factions, it is impossible to tell if an offensive against Mogadishu is imminent. Analysts say Shabaab and other Islamist militants may not want an all-out confrontation with Ethiopian troops, preferring to wait until Addis Ababa withdraws forces.
WORLD “NUMB” TO SOMALIA
Ethiopian Woyanne Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is fed up with the human, political and financial cost of his Somalia intervention, but knows withdrawal could hasten the fall of Mogadishu.
The insurgents may also resist the temptation to launch an offensive on Mogadishu until their own ranks are united.
“Opposition forces at the moment are internally debating whether or not it’s time for a major push,” the diplomat said.
Meanwhile, the rebels attack government and Ethiopian Woyanne targets in the city seemingly at will. Of late, they have also been hitting African Union (AU) peacekeepers, who number just 2,200, possibly to warn the world against more intervention.
Estimates vary but experts think Ethiopia has about 10,000 soldiers in Somalia, the government about 10,000 police and soldiers. Islamist fighter numbers are fluid but may match that.
The Islamists’ growth in power has gone largely unnoticed outside Somalia by all but experts. For the wider world, Somalia’s daily news of bombs, assassinations, piracy and kidnappings has blurred into an impression of violence-as-usual.
Even this week’s horrors, including shells slicing up 30 civilians in a market, registered barely a blip outside.
“The world has grown numb to Somalia’s seemingly endless crises,” said analyst Ken Menkhaus.
But “much is new this time, and it would be a dangerous error of judgement to brush off Somalia’s current crisis as more of the same,” he said. “Seismic political, social, and security changes are occurring in the country.”
The United Nations has been pushing a peace agreement in neighbouring Djibouti that would see a ceasefire, a pull-back of Ethiopian Woyanne troops — the insurgents’ main bone of contention — then some sort of power-sharing arrangement.
Diplomats see that as the main hope for stability, and moderates on both sides support it in principle. But Islamist fighters on the ground have rejected the process, and negotiators failed to agree on details last week.
A U.S. expert on Somalia, John Prendergast, said the world had taken its eyes off the conflict at its peril.
“Somalia truly is the one place in Africa where you have a potential cauldron of recruitment and extremism that, left to its own devices, will only increase in terms of the danger it presents to the region, and to American and Western interests.”
One effect of the conflict impinging on the outside world is rampant piracy off Somalia. Gangs have captured some 30 boats this year, and still hold a dozen ships with 200 or so hostages.
The violence is also impeding relief groups from helping Somalia’s several million hungry. Foreign investors, interested in principle in Somalia’s hydrocarbon and fishing resources, barely give the place a second thought in the current climate.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s president will travel to Ghana in October, officials said on Tuesday, even though a ruling on an international arrest warrant for Darfur war crimes is pending.
The Ghana trip, if it goes ahead, will be President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s first visit to a country that ratified the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court since its chief prosecutor moved to indict him.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir in July, accusing him of genocide and other crimes in the remote western region.
Ghana, as a “state party” of the ICC, would have to arrest the president if the judges issued the warrant during his visit, court officials confirmed on Tuesday.
Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul told Reuters Bashir would face no real risk of arrest when he attends the 6th Summit conference of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group in Accra from Oct. 1-3.
“His Excellency will be there in Accra. But there is no risk,” he said.
“The judges have not made a decision about the warrant and we are now in negotiations with the African Union over the issue,” he added referring to ongoing efforts by the African Union and other bodies to defer the court’s action.
The global court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo this month said he thought it was unlikely the judges would reach a decision by October.
But the three judges have not given any indication about when they might make the ruling and commentators have said it could come any time between September and the end of the year.
LOBBYING
A top level delegation led by Sudan’s vice president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha travelled to New York this week to build up support and lobby for members of the U.N. Security Council to defer the court action.
The African Union, Arab League and other alliances have already urged the Security Council to use its powers under Article 16 of the ICC statute to freeze any proceedings against Bashir to avoid shattering the fragile peace process in Darfur.
A spokeswoman for the ICC confirmed that Ghana was listed as a “state party” of the global court.
“Because we don’t have a police force of our own, we rely on state parties,” she said.
More than five years of fighting in Darfur has killed 200,000 and driven more than 2.5 million from their homes, say international experts. Khartoum puts the death count at 10,000. (Editing by Louise Ireland)
NEW YORK (ST)) – The French government appeared to be taking a softer stance on the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Darfur after president Nicolas Sarkozy dropped the demand for extraditing two Sudanese suspects to the Hague.
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy addresses the 63rd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York September 23, 2008 (Reuters)
France had previously stressed that Sudan must turn over Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb who are wanted by the ICC in connection with Darfur war crimes.
Then later the French Ambassador to the UN Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters that Sudan may try Haroun and Kushayb internally with the consent of the ICC.
But Sarkozy speaking to reporters today at the UN headquarters in New York further watered down France’s demands with regards to the two suspects.
“We want those accused of genocide not to stay as ministers in a government in Sudan” Sarkozy said referring to Haroun.
Paris has been making conflicting statements over the last few weeks on their position with regards to invoking Article 16 of the Rome Statute which the UN Security Council (UNSC) to defer ICC investigations.
In mid-July the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir.
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. It was only last week that judges have started reviewing the case in a process that could possibly drag on to next year.
Sudan and a number of regional organizations including the African Union (AU), Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) condemned Ocampo’s request and called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution deferring Al-Bashir’s indictment.
But the UNSC has been divided on the issue particularly the Western countries on the council hesitant to support such a move.
The French president today made it clear that his country will not support a deferral resolution unless certain conditions are met.
“France wants the Sudanese authorities to radically change their policies. It is now up to Mr. Al-Bashir to determine what exactly he wants” Sarkozy said.
“We want to deploy the international force in Darfur to stop the scandalous situation in which tens of thousands are dying in this part of Africa. We want peace in Sudan as well as peace and the territorial integrity of Chad… people in Darfur have the right to live and we cannot accept the situation as it is currently” he added.
Sarkozy warned Sudan that France wants to see concrete steps taken before it would support a suspension of ICC move.
“There would be no recourse to invoking Article 16 unless there is radical and immediate change in Sudanese policies” he said.
“If Sudanese authorities do change; totally change their policies then France would not be opposed to using Article 16” the French president added.
But Amnesty International lambasted efforts at the UNSC to block ICC charges against Al-Bashir.
“If attempts to block the ICC’s investigation of President Bashir succeed, it would set a dangerous precedent for others to try to undermine international law. It would send a message that the international community is not serious about ending impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” said Amnesty International Executive Director Larry Cox.
Last week the French-Libyan born counsel Dr. Hadi Shalluf called Paris’s position as a “blatant interference in the judicial process”.
Shalluf, who is also a member of Sarkozy’s ruling party, said that “This is a serious violation of the European Union (EU) laws for a government to try and influence a court of law”.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statute that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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Paris May Support a Freeze of ICC Indictment of Sudan President Bashir
A possible International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir took another turn after French President Nicholas Sarkozy reportedly said Paris might support freezing the indictment. President Sarkozy reportedly told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday (Tuesday) that his country would support freezing the possible ICC indictment if Khartoum radically changes its policies over the troubled Darfur region. This comes after the ICC chief prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo seeks support from the United Nations and the African Union to put Sudan’s President on trial for war crimes.
There is, however, a growing debate at the United Nations over whether the Security Council should defer the Sudan probe. Fouead Hikmat is the project director for the Horn of Africa of the International Crisis group. He tells reporter Peter Clottey from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum that it was about time that Sudan’s government changes its approach on the Darfur crisis.
“I think starting with a working assumption here in response to what President Sarkozy said today, I think the assumption is that the government of Sudan and in particular the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) that it needs radical change by first of all to agree to engage with the International Criminal Court, which is very, very important, otherwise if they do refuse to engage the International Criminal Court then there is no foundation for a radical change as far as the policies regarding the settlement in Darfur,” Hikmat noted.
He said Paris’ announcement should be a catalyst for the ruling party to change its stance on the Darfur crisis.
“I could understand that if we unpack the question of President Sarkozy, it means that first of all the NCP should accept and engage the International Criminal Court, that is to respond legally to it and in other words to try to create the conditions for a sustainable settlement of the conflict of Darfur, which then creates an argument to invoke article 16,” he said.
Article 16 of the International Criminal Court’s statute permits the United Nations Security Council to freeze ICC indictments for up to one year.
Hikmat said the Darfur crisis and its ensuing controversy about a possible indictment of Sudan’s President Bashir is a complicated issue to deal with.
“I don’t think it is a very straight forward issue like that because the issues are complex. And I always do believe that when problems are complex you can’t solve them by simple solutions. By definition, I think the solutions have to be complex so that they can address the multiple layers and the multiple factors make that problem,” Hikmat pointed out.
He said there was a need for enthusiasm and confidence building measures among all the stakeholders in the Darfur crisis.
“At the moment if the two parties are to negotiate and find a settlement to the problem of Darfur, this means that there has to be genuine willingness from the government and the rebel groups to sit round the table and to start to negotiate. Now, what constitutes that willingness because I don’t think the situation now in Sudan is about the simple willingness just to express your willingness to say that I would like to sit with others and I’m willing to. Unfortunately, the deep mistrust that is there among all the parties… that would first have to be operationalized through positive mechanisms,” he said.
Hikmat said if Khartoum is able to avoid possible ICC indictment it would bode well for the entire Horn of African region.
“I wish the government would be able to succeed in doing so because that would avert serious consequences to Sudan and also to the region because the issue at hand is stability within Sudan and also the regional stability,” Hikmat noted.
NAIROBI, KENYA – Somalia is a land of a thousand plagues, with nearly 20 years of violent chaos and intractable poverty, Islamic extremism and failed peace talks.
But the crisis over the past 18 months is exceeding even the worst-case scenarios dreamed up nearly two years ago, when troops from neighboring Ethiopia arrived to oust a radical Islamic militia and support the Western-backed government.
The Ethiopian Woyanne troops, which many Somalis consider an occupying force, are seen as a root of the violence and not a cure.
“The nature of the crisis is much more dangerous now,” Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College in North Carolina, told The Associated Press. “The level of indiscriminate violence is worse than at any time.”
With no plan in sight for an Ethiopian a Woyanne withdrawal, both sides of the conflict are at a deadly stalemate seemingly immune to U.N.-brokered peace talks, international pressure and even the daily carnage on Mogadishu’s streets.
This week saw a renewed explosion of violence with 30 people killed in fighting in the capital on Monday and at least 11 civilians killed during an overnight attack on an African Union peacekeepers’ base in Mogadishu.
The government, powerless without Ethiopia’s muscle, will likely crumble if their protectors pull out. And al-Shabab, a radical group at the heart of the insurgency, refuses to negotiate as long as Ethiopians Woyannes remain.
Many in overwhelmingly Muslim Somalia resent the government’s reliance on Ethiopia Woyanne, a traditional rival with a large Christian population and one of Africa’s largest armies. Ethiopia and Somalia fought a bloody war in 1977, and many Somalis see the Ethiopians as abusive and heavy-handed.
Neither side has shown regard for civilians who stream out of the capital in droves, many of them gravely wounded and taking shelter by roadsides or sneaking into neighboring countries. A local human rights group says the insurgency has killed more than 9,000 civilians to date.
The streets of Mogadishu, a once-beautiful seaside city, are now bullet-scarred and stained with blood.
“If your principal interest is quelling the political violence then an Ethiopian a Woyanne withdrawal will help,” Menkhaus said. “That will take away the principal grievance.”
But a pullout is unlikely, as the militants appear to be gaining strength and sidelining the government, just as they did during their six-month rule in 2006. The group, al-Shabab, or “The Youth,” has taken over the port town of Kismayo, Somalia’s third-largest city, and dismantled pro-government roadblocks. They also effectively closed the Mogadishu airport by threatening to attack any plane using it, and ordered journalists to register with them.
Unlike in 2006, however, when the Islamists steadily took over much of southern Somalia and the capital, imposing security while demanding religious piety, Ethiopia is now standing in the way of any truly significant rebel advances in power.
“The Ethiopians Woyannes will make it impossible for the Islamists,” said Daud Aweys, a Nairobi-based Somalia analyst. “The Ethiopians are more powerful, and they have more weapons.”
That means al-Shabab’s near-daily mortar attacks, suicide bombings and ambushes could very likely continue with no end in sight, with the goal of simply crippling and humiliating the government. Reprisals from government and Ethiopian Woyanne allies are swift and heavy-handed, but have not eradicated the insurgency.
The African Union has sent about 2,600 peacekeepers to Somalia. But they have a mandate limited to protecting key government installations such as the airport and seaport. And they are generally are confined to the airport because security is so atrocious.
The U.N. has tried to push peace talks between the government and the opposition, but a recent deal with a more moderate faction of the Islamic group seems only to have worsened the violence.
Al-Shabab denounced the talks, which took place in Djibouti, and did not participate.
“We have started building up our military strength because some of our fellow insurgents seem to have been corrupted by the enemy, like those who signed the so-called deal with the puppet government in Djibouti,” said Sheik Muhumed, a commander with al-Shabab, which the United States considers a terrorist group.
The Ethiopians Woyannes, meanwhile, are eager to leave Somalia, saying they are not meant to be peacekeepers. But they continue to pledge support for the government, fearing a radical Islamic state on their doorstep.
The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. America is concerned that Somalia could be a breeding ground for terror, particularly as Osama bin Laden declared his support for the Islamists.
The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops with the Ethiopian Woyanne forces in 2006 and in early 2007 conducted several airstrikes in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members.
But the U.S. has avoided overt military action in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the 1990s in an effort to fight famine. The mission led to clashes between U.N. forces and Somali warlords, including a battle chronicled in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down” that killed 18 U.S. soldiers.
Menkhaus and other observers say Somalis are being increasingly radicalized, blaming the Ethiopians Woyannes and the government for the extraordinary violence and humanitarian crisis. The fact that Ethiopia Woyanne is a key ally of the United States a country loathed by most Somalis does not help matters.
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Elizabeth Kennedy has covered East Africa since 2006.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Britain has pledged 26.9 million pounds for drought-hit Ethiopia, where some 9.6 million people are in need of emergency food aid, its embassy said on Wednesday.
The money will finance food distribution, medical support, nutrition and water supply.
“We are very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia. That’s why DFID (Department for International Development) is making this additional funding available with immediate effect,” said Howard Taylor, DFID’s representative in Ethiopia.
In June, London pledged some 10 million pounds for Ethiopia.
The World Food Programme on Monday launched an appeal for 460 million dollars to the millions of Ethiopians affected by drought and rising food prices.
Aid organisations say Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, is on the brink of famine akin to those of the 1980s, when millions of people died.
