Wednesday, February 22, 2012

PM: Somalia moving towards peace, stability -.:Middle East Online

PM: Somalia moving towards peace, stability

Somali Islamists flee as Ethiopian troops advance on major Shebab-held stronghold of Baidoa.

Middle East Online

Ali: We are sick and tired of being sick and tired

LONDON - Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said Wednesday the country was entering an era of peace and stability after two decades of unrest, on the eve of a major conference to discuss its future.

Speaking in London where world powers meet on Thursday to seek a solution to the Horn of Africa nation's problems, Ali said the weak western-backed government was pushing back the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebel movement.

"There's a huge improvement in the area of security," Ali told BBC radio.

"We are moving from an era of warlordism, terrorism, extremism and piracy, and we are moving into an era of peace, stability and normalcy.

"Twenty years of lawlessness, violence and chaos is enough. Somalis are ready to move on. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired."

He added: "We are getting rid of the Shebab in the southern part of the country," he said of the Islamist rebels, who were driven out of the Somali capital Mogadishu six months ago but who still control large parts of the south.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN chief Ban Ki-moon are among those attending Thursday's conference, which aims to agree international action to end the unrest in Somalia.

The war-torn nation has been without an effective government for 21 years, is blighted by famine and has become a global piracy hub.

"It's going to take a while for life to get to what it was back before the collapse of the state," Ali said. "But, surely but slowly, we are improving."

"Somalis are entrepreneurial people. They are very creative, and as soon as they get a little bit of normalcy and peace again, they are back to business."

Ali repeated his request for a "Marshall Plan" for Somalia, similar to the huge aid programme provided by the US to Europe after World War II.

"For us, it's unusual for the UK prime minister -- a very good guy from a good country, and a good friend of Somalia -- to call a conference on Somalia without that conference becoming a gamechanger," he said. "We expect a lot."

Shebab fighters flee Berdale

Ethiopian soldiers and Somali government forces closed in on the major Shebab-held stronghold of Baidoa Wednesday, as insurgents fled several positions in the area, officials and witnesses said.

Witnesses in Berdale, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baidoa, said the Al-Qaeda allied Shebab withdrew from there late Tuesday, with Ethiopian and Somali forces now moving in to take control.

"Berdale is completely empty this morning, Al-Shebab fighters fled the area and the Ethiopian tanks are very close now, they are in the outskirts," said Suleiman Mohamed, a resident in Berdale.

"I think there will not be fighting here, as we cannot see any resisting power now."

Ethiopian troops, who moved into southern and western Somalia in November, began a major push Tuesday towards the southern town of Baidoa, which hosted the transitional parliament before Islamist rebels seized the town in 2009.

Somali fighters battling the Shebab said they had taken Berdale.

"Our forces, and the Ethiopian soldiers assisting them, took control of Berdale -- will keep advancing until we seize Baidoa very soon," said Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade, a lawmaker and military commander with the advancing troops.

"The violent extremists did not fight but just ran away, and we will keep chasing them to eliminate their existence," said Habsade, a powerful militia commander from the Baidoa region.

The insurgents have said they have been reinforcing their positions in anticipation of the advance, but Habsade said he was confident the troops could wrest Baidoa from the rebels.

"The attack will not spare a single area under the rule of the terrorists, we will remove them from each and every village and town they control," he added.

Witnesses in Baidoa said people were fleeing the town towards the rebel-held Afgoye corridor, close to the government-held Somali capital Mogadishu.

"Many people, most of them Al-Shebab families and supporters, are fleeing Baidoa this morning, they are heading towards the Afgoye corridor," said Hussein Ali, a resident.

"The town is tense because of the approaching forces led by Ethiopia."

An assault on Baidoa -- 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Mogadishu -- would be a major threat to the rebels, who are already struggling financially and facing increasing pressure from regional armies and pro-government forces.

Some 10,000 African Union troops are battling Shebab remnants in Mogadishu, where the guerrillas pulled out of fixed positions six months ago, losing the fighters a major source of income.

Now the extremist fighters largely rely for funding on the southern port of Kismayo and the charcoal trade, both of which are under pressure from Kenyan forces who crossed into southern Somalia to attack them in October.

Last month Ethiopian troops seized Beledweyne, a key trading town leading from the Ethiopian border south to Mogadishu, strategically located on the main route between north and south Somalia.

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