Ethiopia denies military personnel in Somalia

The Ethiopian government has denied media reports that it has sent military personnel to Baidoa, 240 km northwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, an Ethiopian diplomat told IRIN on Wednesday. "There are no Ethiopian forces in Baidoa," he said, adding: "Ethiopia has no reason to be involved in or training any forces in Somalia." The diplomat was reacting to media reports alleging the presence of Ethiopian military personnel in Baidoa, the headquarters of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a grouping of southern factions opposed to the Transitional National Government. The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, monitored by the BBC, on 31 December reported that "around 70 Ethiopian officers arrived in the city with about 10 military vehicles late on Sunday-Monday night" to train SRRC militia. Al-Hayat said over 8,000 SRRC militias were involved and were being kept in two camps near Baidoa. It quoted an SRRC official as saying the militias comprised 4,000 from the Digil and Mirifle clans, 3,000 from the Harti sub-clan of the main Darod clan, 750 from the Marehan sub-clan of the Darod, and some 530 from the Dir clan. According to Al-Hayat, the training of the SRRC militias is under the command of Hasan Muhammad Shatigadud of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il and Adan Abdallah Nur Gabyow, all members of the SRRC's rotating chairmanship. The second deputy chairman of the RRA, Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, confirmed to the BBC in a radio interview on 31 December the presence of Ethiopian military personnel in Baidoa but said they comprised just 20 instructors, who were there to help in demobilising 4,000 militias, and not to train them. Habsade said that the RRA, which controls the Bay and Bakol regions, had earlier requested help with demobilisation from the UN, but without success.