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Back in 2006, when it looked like the Islamic Court Union was going to emerge as the winner in the country’s decades long civil war, Ethiopia intervened by invading the country and propping up the western friendly “interim government”. Ethopia quickly managed to drive the ICU out of much of Somalia, but at the cost of an ongoing guerilla war. Not a rich country, Ethiopia can’t keep up its occupation of Somalia the way America can do with Iraq and with little to no support given by the west, it’s no wonder the country has threatened to withdraw even if this meants the ICU will win:
Ethiopia is prepared to withdraw troops from Somalia even if the interim government is not stable, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said.
Ethiopia invaded its neighbour in 2006 to oust an Islamist militia and re-install the transitional government.
He told the UK’s Financial Times paper that financial pressures had to be taken into account and said the commitment was not open ended.
The withdrawal of Ethiopians is a key demand of the Islamist insurgents.
Al-Shabab, the radical wing of the Islamists who controlled much of Somalia in 2006, has refused to recognise a recent UN-brokered agreement the interim government has signed with an opposition group including a top Islamist leader.
It has demanded that Ethiopian troops leave Somalia before any ceasefire is considered.
Ethiopian interference in Somalia has been a disaster for the country, with aid agencies active in Somalia warning about famine as far back as March this year. It would’ve been much better off if the ICU had been allowed to win the civil war, even if they are the Islamic fanatics western propaganda has made them out to be, but in the framework of The War Against Terror this was never on the cards. The American government would rather wreck a country than let it fall into the hands of “Islamic terrorists”, so they first sponsored the same warlords America fought against back in 1993, then got ethiopia to invade when that wasn’t enough. It’s more than even odds that when Ethiopia withdraws (officially to be replaced with an African Union peaceforce) the Somalian civil war proper will flare up again, but this is of lesser concern to the US and Ethiopia, as long as the ICU doesn’t gain power. As usual in American foreign policy, if they can’t keep a puppet regime in power, a crippled country is a good secondbest scenario.