Mogadishu 05,Nov.07 ( Sh.M.Network)- Ethiopia's government Tuesday called on the international community to step up its support for an African-led peacekeeping mission in Somalia, where Ethiopian troops have been mired in an Islamist insurgency since invading last December.

"Ethiopia has single-handedly been playing its role by bearing the huge responsibility that the international community and countries failed to accomplish in collaboration or individually," a statement from Ethiopia's Information Ministry read.

The statement was issued as Addis Ababa prepares to host a Wednesday meeting of African regional leaders, which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to join.

Ethiopia had been counting on the deployment of peacekeepers to allow its troops to leave Somalia.

So far, only Uganda has contributed peace keepers to the U.N.-backed African Union Mission in Somalia, and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told his parliament in November that Ethiopian forces were stuck there for the time being.

"The deployment of the peacekeeping force was among the major pledges made by the international community," the government said. "However, deployment of the peacekeeping contingent was not carried out as promptly and as it was expected."

Ethiopia's invasion installed Somalia's internationally recognized, U.N.-backed transitional government in Mogadishu after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. Ethiopian troops quickly routed the provisional government set up by the Islamic Courts Union, which had wrested power from Somali warlords and claimed control of the capital Mogadishu six months earlier.

The United States, which supported the invasion, accuses the Islamists of harboring suspected al Qaeda operatives, including men believed to have planned the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The ICU denied the allegation, but the insurgency its fighters launched against Ethiopian troops won the praise of al Qaeda's fugitive leaders.

Pitched battles between Ethiopian and government troops and the rebels have driven tens of thousands of Somalis from homes in Mogadishu in recent weeks, contributing to an estimated total of one million displaced in the poverty-stricken coastal nation.

Ethiopia is also at odds with neighboring Eritrea, accusing it of supporting the Somali insurgents. In addition, a border dispute that resulted in a two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1990s remains unsettled, with both countries massing troops along the contested frontier

Source (CNN)

Shabelle Media Network Somalia
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