The real war has began. Just about ten days ago, the Union of Islamic Courts have encircled the city of Baidao by controlling Diinsoor forcing the Ethiopians to, finally, admit they've troops in Somalia. Ethiopia went into full-scale offensive and started bombing the town of Beledwayne yesterday, resulting in the death of many civilians. Aljazeera English reporter Adow, reported from the front lines yesterday.Today, Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Mogadishu airport. Aljazeera Arabic reports that now Ethiopian troops (together with warlords loyal to the TFG) have captured the town of Beledwayne, Bulabarde and Adale and are moving south-ward to Jawhar.
The president of Puntland visited Baidao just before the war started, Puntland is still loyal to the TFG president Abdulla Yusuf and is a close "ally" to the Ethiopians. There were skirmishes between Puntland and UIC forces yesterday, the worse case scenario would be if that develops into full scale war-front.
The area of fighting is huge, from the north of Galkayo and all the way south, around Kismayo.
There has been many civilian causalities, and thousands have fled their villages and across the border. The humanitarian situation is dire and it will only get worse as the fighting continues. There severe flooding in the south just few weeks ago.
Technocrati Tags: Africa, Somalia
1 comment:
Where are these "many civilian casualties" you've been writing about? Aljazeera TV news usually has plenty of footage on "civilian casualties" caused by "American military occupations" in the Middle East or in this case American-backed military interventions in the Horn of Africa.
Did the Aljazeera reporters on the "front lines" get any videotape of all of these alleged civilian casualties? Please provide us with proof of these alleged atrocities if you can.
Hope the girls with the Chinese-made AK-47's were not foolish enough to get mixed up in this mess.
On a lighter note, there is a Heads Up note in the comments section of Ethan Zuckerman's last post on Ethiopian troops not being welcomed in Mogadishu. I thought that you would like to know about that.
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1162
Much luck with your work online and your life offline in the coming year 2007 Abdurahman. More importantly, hoping that all goes well for your home country Somalia from this day forward. We shall see.
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