Ethiopia Quits Somalia, Declares 2-Year ‘Mission Accomplished’

By Jason McLure

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia declared its two-year occupation of Somalia a success as its forces began the last stage of withdrawal, leaving behind one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and a government close to collapse.

“Mission accomplished,” the Foreign Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “Our defense forces have carried out a successful mission to eliminate the clear and present danger that our country had faced two years ago.”

U.S.-backed Ethiopian soldiers invaded Somalia in December 2006, ousting the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist alliance that had briefly controlled much of the country. Its attempt to reinstall the United Nations-backed transitional government in the capital, Mogadishu, was met with an Iraq-style insurgency by Islamist and clan-based militias.

More than 800,000 have been forced from their homes by the fighting, while an estimated 3.2 million people, more than 40 percent of the country’s population, are in need of humanitarian aid. The seas off Somalia have become the world’s most dangerous for commercial shippers as the anarchy has led to rapid growth of piracy and kidnappings.

As a result of the insurgency, the transitional government controls only parts of Mogadishu and the southern town of Baidoa, while Islamists from the al-Shabaab militia, a faction of the Islamic Courts Union, control much of southern Somalia. On Dec. 29, the president of the transitional government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, resigned following a power struggle with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

Peacekeeping Failure

A force of 3,400 African Union peacekeepers has failed to bring peace and the future of the mission remains in doubt even after Uganda and Burundi pledged to contribute more troops if Western donor nations pay for them. The UN Security Council has refused repeated pleas from the AU and Ethiopia to send a more robust international force.

Ethiopia began its withdrawal on Jan. 2.

“The government of Ethiopia realizes that durable peace is still the call of the people of Somalia which is yet to be answered,” the Foreign Ministry said today. “It is in light of this that Ethiopia appeals to the international community to give more attention to this call by the people of Somalia and discharge its responsibilities by helping the Somalis free themselves from the prevailing chaos.”

Somalia hasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 5, 2009 02:45 EST