Ethiopia to pull troops out of Somalia this year

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Ethiopia to pull troops out of Somalia this year
Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:36am EST

By Tsegaye Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday it
would withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end
of this year, piling pressure on Somalia's feuding
government and African nations that had promised
to send peacekeepers.

Addis Ababa has sent thousands of soldiers to support
Somalia's Western-backed interim administration,
whose divisions have hindered its battle against
Islamist militants waging an Iraq-style insurgency.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's government wants a fully-
fledged United Nations peacekeeping force to replace
a small African Union (AU) mission that has been
unable to stem the violence.

"The Ethiopians are at the end of their tether because
of the squabbling in the interim government, which
they have backed at such enormous human and
financial cost," Rashid Abdi, Somalia expert at the
International Crisis Group, told Reuters.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4AR1L620081128