Somali militants target Ethiopian troops

Staff and agencies
Friday December 15, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


A Somali government soldier removes the cover of an artillery cannon in a training camp near Baidoa, Somalia. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP


Islamists in Somalia today distributed sermons calling for holy war amid fears the country is descending into a new cycle of violence.

The sermons are designed to be read during Friday prayers across the country and are aimed at whipping up hatred of Ethiopian soldiers in the country.

"The sermon concerns the holy war on Ethiopian troops inside Somalia," an Islamic official, Sheik Hussein Abdullahi Barre, told The Associated Press. "What we want is that Friday's sermon should be concerned about jihad."

The Mogadishu-based Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) accuses Ethiopia of sending more than 30,000 soldiers over the border to bolster the increasingly beleaguered, western-backed, government of president Abdullahi Yusuf in the city of Baidoa. Ethiopia says it has only sent several hundred military trainers.

The EU's aid chief has called for renewed peace talks between the government and Islamists as the only way of averting civil war.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew the longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into a decade of anarchy and civil war.

A government was formed with the help of the UN in 2004 to serve as a transitional body to help rebuild the country. But it has proved weak and ineffective, while the Islamic courts have been steadily gaining power since June, raising concerns about an emerging Taliban-style regime. The US accuses the group of having ties to al-Qaida, which it denies.

The US last week pushed through a UN security council resolution calling for a regional force to support the interim administration. The move sparked vows to wage holy war against "invaders" from the Islamists and aroused concerns that it could provoke an all-out war dragging in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

"There is a need to break the futility of violence. The military option can never be considered a solution," the EU development and humanitarian aid commissioner, Louis Michel, told Reuters. "I am in favour of relaunching the political dialogue. I don't see any other alternative," he said, while in Kenya for a regional summit.

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