05/12/08 (B477) L’annonce du retrait des troupes éthiopiennes commencent à susciter de nombreuses inquiétudes dans le monde, pour l’avenir de la Somalie. (5 dépêches en Anglais et en Français)
_________________________________ 5 – VOA En Anglais)
L’Ethiopie a accepté de retardé pour une courte période, le retrait de ses troupes d’Ethiopie, pour permettre à la communauté internationale d’organiser la transition // Ethiopia has agreed to a brief delay in its troop pullout from Somalia to allow the international community time to organize a replacement force.
VOA’s Peter Heinlein in Addis Ababa reports the African Union is issuing an urgent appeal for manpower and funding to strengthen its badly understaffed AMISOM peacekeeping mission.
African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping and Peace and Security Commission chief Ramtane Lamamra were in Cairo for talks with leaders of the League of Arab States.
Commissioner Lamamra is to fly on to New York later this week to consult with the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The hastily-arranged trip is aimed at generating financial support for a rapid increase in the size of the AU AMISOM peacekeeping mission. AMISOM has worked alongside Ethiopian troops to prop up Somalia’s fragile U.N.-backed transitional government.
In a letter sent to potential donors this week, Commissioner Lamamra said Uganda and Burundi, the two nations that supply almost all the 3,400 AMISOM troops in Somalla, had each offered to supply an additional battalion of 850 troops. Military analysts said such a manpower surge would just about make up for the departing Ethiopian contingent of about 2,000.
AU officials said one country, Norway, has given a tentative positive response, while others promised to have an answer within a day or two.
An Ethiopian foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said Addis Ababa has agreed to push back its self-declared December 31 troop-withdrawal deadline by, at most, a few weeks, to allow time for the AMISOM replacements to arrive.
But the official emphasized that Ethiopian policymakers are losing patience with the international community’s seeming lack of concern at the possible collapse of Somalia’s fragile transitional government, and the likelihood it would be replaced by an administration led by religious extremists hostile to the West.
Ethiopia and other countries in the East Africa regional group IGAD have also expressed frustration at the failure of the transitional government’s leadership to settle internal feuds that are undermining stability in the Horn of Africa.
Last month, IGAD ordered sanctions against anyone considered an obstacle to peace. The order did not name anyone, but officials said it was clearly aimed at transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf.
Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in December, 2006. They drove out an Islamic group that had imposed Sharia law over much of the lawless Horn of Africa nation, and installed a U.N-supported government. But in the two years since, the troops have become bogged down in fighting with an increasingly potent mix of Islamist and clan-based militias. The transitional government, meanwhile, has been unable to extend its authority outside of parts of the capital, Mogadishu and the central town of Baidoa.
An agreement signed in Djibouti in October between the transitional administration and an opposition faction called for a ceasefire that would pave the way for Ethiopia’s withdrawal. But violence has continued, along with a surge in piracy off Somalia’s strategic seacoast.
The United Nations describes Somalia as possibly the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The U.N World Food Program estimates 3.2 million people, or 40 percent of the country’s population are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance.
__________________________________ 4 – Mareeg.com
Le premier ministre éthiopien reçoit une délégation composée de 3 membres du Congrés américain. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Wednesday [3 December] received and held talks with a three-member US congress delegation.
During the discussion, Meles said Ethiopia and the USA may carry on with their cooperation in trying to ensure peace and security in the Horn of Africa.
After the talks, the delegation’s leader, Congressman Kendrick Meek, told journalists that Ethiopia and the USA had a strong bilateral cooperation. He appreciates Ethiopia’s efforts in fighting terrorism in Somalia and the region as a whole.
Meek, who is a member of Armed Services Committee with the congress, said the international community should join hands to stop the piracy off the coast of Somalia. The congressman also expressed his country’s commitment to stop the piracy and ensure peace and security in Somalia.
US congressional delegations pay visits to Ethiopia in various times.
By: Abdi Guled
Email: abdinasir4@gmail.com
Mareeg.com-Mogadishu
__________________________________ 3 – Yahoo
L’Ethiopie presse le Président du GNT pour qu’il coopère au rétablissement de la Paix en Somalie. // Ethiopia urges peace efforts on Somalia
Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was urged to cooperate with the peace process.
Ethiopia reportedly urges the Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed not to resist the peace process in talks with the Somali opposition.
Meeting with Abdullahi Yusuf in the northern Somali region of Puntland, the Ethiopian officials called on the president not to reverse himself during the talks, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported.
They demanded that he remain committed to the peace deal recently reached with the oppositionists in Djibouti.
To press their point home, the officials reportedly cited the considerable human and material losses Ethiopia had suffered since its 2006 entry into Somalia.
Since the intervention, made to support Somalia’s embattled transitional administration, the Ethiopian soldiers have been in constant struggle against the county’s insurgency.
The Somali leader, afterwards, headed for Djibouti to keep up on the peace negotiations with the opposition faction, the alliance for re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).
__________________________________ 2 – Shabelle (En Anglais)
Un intellectuel somalien, qui vit aux USA, affirme que les Ethiopiens n’ont jmais eu l’intention véritable de retirer leurs troupes de Somalie et qu’ils versent des « larmes de crocodile ». Pour lui, la présence éthiopienne a engendré plus de violence et d’insécurité. // Ethiopian troop withdrawal is « crocodile tear, » says Prof: Samatar
A Somali intellectual, Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar, who has an American citizenship, described the Ethiopian troop withdrawal as « crocodile tears » saying that Ethiopia is not committed to pull out its troops from Somalia.
In an interview with Shabelle Media Network Professor Abdi Ismail Smatar told Shabelle from the United States that the Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia caused insecurity problems in Mogadishu.
« If the Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia there will not be security vacuum, » Professor Samatar Said. Ethiopians are them selves creating security problems, he added.
He also criticized the peace agreement signed in Djibouti between the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia ARS and the transitional federal government.
He pointed out that the international community is not doing enough efforts to help Somali people He argued the composition of 250 parliamentarians is not good for Somalia.
Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar lives and works in the United States.
__________________________________ 1 – Le Point
Somalie – « Scénario catastrophe »
Mireille Duteil
C’est soudain l’affolement. L’Ethiopie a décidé de retirer ses troupes de Somalie d’ici à la fin décembre : « C’est un scénario catastrophe », prédit Jean Ping, président de la Commission de l’Union africaine (UA).
Sa crainte : si les Ethiopiens retirent leurs 3 000 hommes, les 2 800 soldats burundais et ougandais déployés à Mogadiscio dans le cadre de la mission de paix de l’UA (Amisom) partiront eux aussi. Et le gouvernement intérimaire somalien sera de nouveau à la merci des attaques des extrémistes islamistes.
Le départ des Ethiopiens est prévu depuis août et un accord signé à Djibouti entre le gouvernement somalien et son opposition islamiste modérée. Mais les dissensions au sein du pouvoir somalien et le fait que l’Ethiopie n’a reçu aucune aide extérieure pour son engagement en Somalie (à la demande des Américains) a précipité son départ. Et personne n’est prêt à la remplacer.