Deodatus Mfugale, AfricaNews reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Ethiopia will withdraw its forces from Somalia in December, a move that would force the AU to implement its plan to send an 8,000 peacekeeping force to the war ravaged nation. It would also exert pressure on the UN to scale up efforts to restore peace in Somalia before lawlessness reaches a tipping point.
Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government had written to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chairman of AU Commission Jean Ping on Tuesday to inform them of its decision to withdraw its troops.
No reasons for the withdrawal have been advanced but Ethiopia feels “betrayed” by the West after the latter backed the sending of Ethiopian troops to Somalia in 2006 but then left it to deal with the Islamist militants alone.
The promise by the UN to send an international peacekeeping force and failure by the AU to send 8,000 troops which would have been replaced by the UN force also seem to have frustrated Ethiopia, making it reach the decision to withdraw its troops. The AU has just about 2,000 troops in its peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Again, Ethiopian troops have been targeted by the militants who have recently scaled up attacks, waging successful running battles against Somalia and Ethiopian troops as well as the AU peacekeeping force. And as if this is not enough, the interim Somali government is divided, making it not only vulnerable to attacks by the rebels but also making Ethiopia regret the backing in financial and human resources it had offered. The insurgents now control a good part of the country, particularly the southern part.
As Islamists step up their attacks on the weak interim government, piracy is also escalating and observers have alleged there is a link between the pirates and the Islamist militants. In the latest development, the pirates on Friday hijacked a chemical tanker registered in Liberia, the Biscaglia, in the Gulf of Aden.
Last year alone 10,000 civilians were killed in Somali as a result of fighting between the Islamist rebels and forces of the interim government. More that one million have also been displaced and three million others are on the brink of starvation and need emergency food supplies.
Somalia has not had any government since 1991 a situation which has resulted into lawlessness punctuated by killings and kidnappings of humanitarian agency workers, banditry and now, escalating piracy.
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