Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, in a recent visit to Mogadishu, refused to give a date for Ethiopian troops to withdraw from Somalia, saying Somalia's transition government and civil society leaders had asked Ethiopia not to abandon the Somali people. (Shabeelle Media Network, May 29) Now reports are mounting that Somali troops are actually headed for Ethiopia. The pro-Islamist Somali website Somaaljecel reports that Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, his Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, and Ethiopian Foreign Minister Mesfin agreed in talks at Mogadishu "that it is the interim Somali government's turn to help the Ethiopian government, which is planning to go into war with Eritrea soon." (Somaaljecel, May 26)

The Fight for Inclusion

by Gumisai Mutume, Africa Renewal

Ethiopian troops opened fire and killed five civilian bystanders May 30 after a land mine exploded as their convoy passed through the center of a western Somali town of Belet Weyne. (AP, May 30) As the transition government backed by Ethiopian and African Union troops struggle too impose authority on the country, NATO is said to be studying a request from the AU to provide air transport for its forces in Somalia. At present the AU force is made up of just 1,600 Ugandan troops. (Reuters, May 30)

President Bush has announced an expanded regime of sanctions against Sudan, implementing what he called "Plan B" in his April speech at the Holocaust Museum, as an alternative to UN troops. Thirty companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government and one private Sudanese air company accused of transporting arms to Darfur are targeted by the sanctions. Individuals connected to the violence in Darfur will also be sanctioned, including Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan's minister for humanitarian affairs, and Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group. Harun is accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, and Ibrahim has refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. (Council on Foreign Relations, CNN, May 29)

At least 16 were killed and 67 injured in two attacks in the eastern Ethiopia towns of Jijiga and Degah Abur May 28. Up to 11 were killed when a hand grenade was thrown as hundreds of people gathered at a stadium in Jijiga. Regional president Abdullahi Hassan was wounded as he spoke at a ceremony to mark the 1991 overthrow of Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. The Ethiopian government blamed the attack on the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Adurahmin Mohammed Mahdi, the ONLF's spokesman in London, denied the claim. "Our policy is not to attack civilian targets or Jijiga," he told Reuters. "The ONLF attacks military targets only." (AlJazeera, May 28)

From Reporters Without Borders via AllAfrica, May 25:

Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of Abdel Fettah Ould Ebeidna, managing editor of the daily newspaper "Al-Aqsa", who was sent to prison in Nouakchott on 24 May 2007 because of a libel complaint against him by a businessman.

Exiled Somali leaders in Eritrea issued a call to boycott a Mogadishu peace conference scheduled for next month, warning of further violence if it goes ahead. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), and Sheikh Sharif Hassan Aden, a former Somali parliament speaker, released the joint statement in Asmara.

China's newly-appointed envoy Liu Guijin called for greater humanitarian aid on a visit to Darfur—but said international sanctions against Sudan would only "further complicate the situation" and prolong the suffering of the 2.5 million refugees displaced by the conflict. Liu met local officials in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, before touring two nearby refugee camps, the report said. An estimated 100,000 people now live in the Abu Shouk and As-Salam camps. (AlJazeera, May 24)