Ethiopian troops join fight in Somalia Somalia

Resident Mohammed Abdi said hundreds of residents fled Beledweyne yesterday after hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali troops moved in. Captain Hashi Nor of the Somali military confirmed that Somali and Ethiopian troops had advanced.

“I saw Ethiopian troops standing at the doors of neighbouring homes. Somali soldiers are also searching the homes,” Abdi said. “Al-Shabaab retreated back to Bulo Burte and also many of the residents fled, and those who remained are in their homes.”

The move appears to be a third front against al-Shabaab, Somalia’s strongest militant group.

Kenyan troops moved into Somalia in mid- October in a push against the militants in the country’s south. African Union troops from Uganda, Burundi and most recently from Djibouti have mostly pushed al-Shabaab fighters out of the capital, Mogadishu.

“We are in full control of Beledweyne now and our troops will move forward in the coming hours,” Captain Nor said by phone from Beledweyne.

Abdi said the sound of gunfire could be heard in Beledweyne but that he did not believe actual battle was taking place. However, al-Shabaab on its official Twitter feed said that a battle that began at 6am was still “raging” in the city as of noon.

Al-Shabaab said that a “majority” of Beledweyne residents joined al-Shabab “to thwart the offensive”. It claimed that dozens of Ethiopian troops had been killed, but that was impossible to verify and was probably an exaggeration.

US-backed Ethiopian troops moved into Somalia in 2006 at the invitation of the weak, UN-backed Somali government. But the incursion was seen by many Somalis as an unpopular invasion and actually helped give birth to the al-Shabaab movement. Ethiopians pulled out in early 2009, and there are fears that a new push by Somalia could be a propaganda coup for al-Shabaab.

Ethiopia in November said it was considering whether to contribute troops to the African Union force in Somalia.