11/03/07 (B386-A) BBC / Le Ministre erythréen de l’information affirme que la présence des troupes ougandaises en Somalie ne peut qu’agraver la situation dans toute la région et il accuse l’Ethiopie d’être aux ordres des USA. Eritrea has warned of dire consequences unless Uganda pulls its peacekeeping troops out of war-torn Somalia. (En anglais – Info lectrice)

Eritrean
Information Minister Ali Abdu said that unless Uganda withdrew the situation
would be increasingly dangerous for the entire region.

Mr Abdu said the Ugandan troops, who arrived in Somalia this week as part
of an African Union peacekeeping mission, would only worsen the situation.

The deployment could prompt war between Somalis and external forces, he said.

‘Puppet state’

Speaking to the BBC, the minister accused Ethiopia – which helped install
the Somali government in the capital, Mogadishu – of wanting to carve up the
country.

Mr Abdu said Ethiopia was acting as a puppet of the United States, which helped
attack forces of the Islamic Courts as they fled before the Ethiopian advance.

Eritrea itself was accused by the United Nations of supplying arms and equipment
to the Islamists – all part of their long-running dispute with Ethiopia over
their common border.

The ramifications of that conflict are still rumbling across the region, and
lie behind Mr Abdu’s dire warnings to the Ugandan forces now installed in
Somalia.