SOMALIA/KENYA: Somalia Prime Minister says foreign pro-Islamist fighters captured during fighting; Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in Kenya

Record ID: 361486

  • Title: SOMALIA/KENYA: Somalia Prime Minister says foreign pro-Islamist fighters captured during fighting; Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in Kenya
  • Date: 2nd January 2007
  • Summary: (BN11) NAIROBI, KENYA (JANUARY 2, 2006)(REUTERS) PLANE CARRYING SOMALI PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF AHMED TAXIING AT JOMO KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN NAIROBI SOMALIA PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF AHMED LEAVING PLANE SOMALIA PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF AHMED SHAKING HANDS WITH A SOMALI OFFICIAL SOMALI PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF WALKING AWAY CONVOY CARRYING PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI
  • Embargoed: 17th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3XWGJVX9YPV1P0GLM8SW4AWP8
  • Story Text: Somali prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Tuesday (January 2) announced the re-opening of the Somalia airspace just a few days after Ethiopian troops backing the weak transitional government ousted Islamic militias from most towns they had been holding for the past 6 months.
    "Today I want to announce to the Somali people and the businessmen and those who are travellers that we open the Somali airspace from tomorrow." Gedi told journalists in Mogadishu.
    Ethiopian planes, tanks and troops helped the Somali government drive out the Islamists from Mogadishu last week. The administration has broken out of its provincial outpost to end six months of Islamist rule across much of the south.
    Gedi also said Ethiopian troops would stay a while.
    "Regarding African Union troops - there are consultations going on and the African Union is preparing itself to fullfil its promise. But we agreed with the Ethiopian government to remove foreign enemies from our country," Gedi said.
    Gedi said Eritrean, Ethiopian rebels and Arab fighters had been taken prisoner during the fighting.
    "Some of those who were defeated are still hiding on the border between Kenya and Somalia, but as you heard we captured some of them - foreigners, and we are still chasing others." he said.
    The Somali government, and its Ethiopian backers, have long said several thousand foreign fighters were aiding the Islamist movement which took Mogadishu and most of south Somalia in June but was defeated at its last bastion on Monday.
    Addis Ababa has particularly pointed the finger at its arch-enemy Eritrea, saying it sent hundreds of soldiers to fight alongside the Somalia Islamic Courts Councuil (SICC).
    Asmara denies that, saying Ethiopia has planted fake Eritrean identity cards in Somalia to try and smear it.
    The government has offered an amnesty to Somali fighters, but says foreigners will face the courts.
    The government has also told Mogadishu residents to hand over their weapons by Thursday or be forcibly disarmed.
    In Mogadishu the interim government set up gun collection points at the start of a drive to disarm one of the world's most dangerous cities.
    A proliferation of weapons has made the war-scarred capital on the Indian Ocean one of the most gun-infested cities in the world despite a United Nations arms embargo.
    Restoring stability to Mogadishu is the first priority of the interim government, the legitimacy of which hinges on installing itself in the capital and restoring central rule for the first time since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
    The task is complicated by the return of warlords hoping to restore fiefdoms they ran before the SICC, which pacified Mogadishu by enforcing sharia law, chased them out.
    Despite the Islamists' surprisingly quick flight, analysts and diplomats say the conflict may be far from over.
    The Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as propped up by a hated and Christian-led foreign power.
    Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf arrived in neighbouring Kenya on Tuesday (January 2) to meet Kenyan officials.
    Tightening the net on defeated Somali Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fighters fleeing south, neighbouring Kenya said it had sealed its northeastern border.
    Despite the Kenyan measures, it would not be hard for Islamist fighters to slip over the border, given the length of the frontier, the desolate nature of the terrain, and the fact that ethnic Somalis live on the Kenyan side, analysts say.
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