Militia loyal to former defence leader of the defeated Islamic Courts Union Yusuf Mohamed Inda-Adde have taken control of Bulo-Mareer and Qoryoley towns in lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia on Saturday after heavy fighting with soldiers loyal to the newly appointed governor for the region.
At least five people were reported killed and seven others wounded in an armed confrontation with Ethiopian regime-backed forces in two towns of lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia.
The fighting began yesterday afternoon in Bulo-Marer town 130km southwest of Mogadishu where government forces led by the governor of Lower Shabelle clashed with militiamen loyal to former ousted Islamists.
Witnesses told Somalinet that the clashes in Bulo-Marer killed two people from both sides and wounded six others, two of them civilians.
The fighting then spread to Qoryoley town 23km northwest of Bulo-Marer where three people were killed and another one was wounded.
The fighting in Lower Shabelle region was related to a row over the control of the region between the newly named administration and the former authority.
The new governor of lower Shabelle, Abdukadir Sheik Mohamed Nor, and his soldiers went to an unknown location after they were defeated in the latest fighting.
The Voice of America (VOA) recent report citing unnamed sources alleging that Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has entered into a coalition with political entities in Somalia is far from reality and well within the realm of fantasy. For nearly two decades, the TPLF regime has been engaged in an deliberate effort to misrepresent our struggle to the international community in a bid to divert attention from the legitimate grievances of the people of Ogaden. This misrepresentation has included efforts to portray the ONLF as a religious organization instead of a nationalist organization and TPLF statements aimed at leaving the impression that the scope of our military operations extend beyond Ogaden.
The ONLF wishes to make clear to the international community that we are not, have not been and will not be a party to the ongoing conflict in Somalia as a matter of policy and principle. In that regard, the ONLF is not, has not been and will not be a part of any coalition with political groups in Somalia. The only coalition that the ONLF is a proud member of is the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD).
The foundation of the ONLF policy toward Somalia is that Somalia should be left to the Somalis and that the Ethiopian army should immediately and without condition, pull its troops out of Somalia. The TPLF regime will have to face the reality that they must deal with the legitimate representatives of the people of Ogaden and abandon their failed military strategy in Ogaden and ongoing brutal crackdown against our civilian population. The TPLF must accept direct talks with the ONLF in a neutral country and in the presence of a third party arbiter with no pre-conditions placed on either side if there is ever to be a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the conflict between the people of Ogaden and successive Ethiopian governments.
The TPLF must also accept the call for an all inclusive conference made by the member organizations of the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD)
Ethiopian [Woyanne] and Somali forces continue wider security operations in the Somalia capital searching for weapons and suspects –- as a hand grenade bomb was targeted on the [Woyanne] base in the former Pasta Factory in north of the capital overnight.
There was no immediate casualty on the Ethiopian [Woyanne] soldiers.
Hundreds of heavily armed Ethiopian forces with Somali soldiers began this morning door to door search for suspects, blocking the main industrial roads in north of the capital.
“This morning I have not gone for work because all roads were closed by the Ethiopians [Woyanne] searching for weapons… I don’t known what to do and I can’t go on foot to reach my business center in Bakara market which is miles away from here,” said Ali Hussein, 65, a father of eight children.
Several people were arrested in connection with last night’s bomb attack while seizing weapons from houses near the Ethiopian base.
Also in today’s raid, the police crashed a number of “illegal” kiosks alongside the road in north of the city. All houses near the building of the pasta factory which houses Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops were destroyed for security grounds.
The officials of the transitional government said the operations in Mogadishu is to assure the security and prevent any acts of violence to pave the way for the upcoming reconciliation conference scheduled to take place in Mogadishu mid June, few days to go.
Reports in Somalia say that a coalition of groups opposed to Somalia’s struggling transitional government and its Ethiopian [Woyanne] backers has been formed with the support of the Eritrean government. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
VOA has learned that a yet-to-be-named, anti-Somali government, anti-[Woyanne] coalition was formed in late May at a conference, hosted by the Eritrean government in the capital, Asmara.
According to reports on Somali Internet websites, the conference, dubbed as a “unity meeting” by Eritrean President Isias Afewerki, brought together leaders and representatives of at least four groups — Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union, rebels from Ethiopia’s Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front, and exiled former parliament members of the Somali transitional government.
The reports say the moderate leader of the Islamic Courts Union’s executive council, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, represented the courts at the meeting and the Ogaden National Liberation Front sent its chief military commander, Mohamed Omar Osman. The transitional government’s former deputy prime minister turned critic, Hussein Aideed, is said to have also attended.
The details of the conference are not known and neither the Somali nor the Ethiopian [Woyanne] government has commented yet about reports of the meeting.
VOA sources in Mogadishu have confirmed reports that Sheik Ahmed has been named head of the coalition’s political wing and Osman of the Ogaden National Liberation Front will lead its military wing. The presumed objective of the coalition is to bring its common enemy, Ethiopia’s regime [Woyanne], to its knees politically and economically and to hasten Ethiopian troop withdrawal from Somalia.
Thousands of Ethiopian [Woyanne] soldiers have been in Somalia for at least eight months, protecting Somalia’s secular interim government. With military aid from Ethiopia’s regime and U.S. support, the government drove out the Islamic Courts Union and took power in Mogadishu in early January.
But a violent insurgency, blamed mostly on radical Islamists and disgruntled Hawiye clan members, has kept the government from asserting full control over the capital.
Fighting between Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops and insurgents in March and April killed nearly 1,500 people and caused hundreds of thousands to flee Mogadishu.
Since then, a series of Iraq-style attacks, targeting mostly Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops and government officials, has prompted a severe, capital-wide security crackdown.
Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops are now manning checkpoints at nearly every major intersection and cars are not allowed to move in the city after 6 p.m. in the evening.
Ethiopian [Woyanne] and Somali security forces are conducting random house-to-house searches for weapons and are making what many citizens say are arbitrary arrests.
The government has also been widely criticized for closing down three independent radio stations, after authorities accused the stations of fomenting unrest, supporting terrorism, and being anti-government.
A leading civil activist in Mogadishu, Alisaid Omar, says heavy-handed actions by the government and Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops are not helping the capital stabilize.
“Shutting down these radios is like shutting down civil society as a whole, because we have no place to express our views, whether negative or positive,” he said. “I see this as a very bad signal and I think it will damage the reputation of the transitional federal government.”
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MOGADISHU, Somalia June 8, 2007 (Garowe Online) – Somali government troops have began withdrawing from the interior of Beletwein town near the Ethiopian border, military officials said on Friday.
Col. Ahmed Mohamed Hubeyr, the commander of government troops in Hiran region, said some 400 soldiers will be redeployed to El Gal military camp, 15km north of Beletwein.
Police officers will remain in the city manning key checkpoints and at local stations. Hundreds of heavily armed Ethiopian troops had entered the city in recent days to reinforce the police, Beletwein residents said.
The Somali ambassador to both the African Union and Ethiopia, Abdikarim Lakanyo, is on a working visit to Beletwein to convince locals to cooperate with the regional government and their Ethiopian military allies. [ Full story]
Regional officials and military commanders said the decision to remove Somali soldiers from the city came after increasing reports of robbery and violent attacks carried out by men in military fatigues.
Somalia’s transitional government, formed in 2004, lacks the funding to properly attire and equip its security forces, which has given common criminals an opportunity to take advantage.
This same problem has been reported repeatedly in other major cities, including the capital Mogadishu. On Tuesday, the country’s deputy defense minister announced that thousands of soldiers were sent back to regional military bases for further training.
