Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu
Fresh Ethiopian troops along with number armored vehicles have occupied Ballanballe in Galgaudu province, central Somalia.
Witnesses said they saw 18 battlewagons and a large number of Ethiopian troops coming to Ballanballe to fortify Ethiopian troops that were already in the district.
The entry of Ethiopian troops in the country came a day after an Islamic Court dubbed Imamu Shafici was set up in Galgadud provincial district of Abudwaq. Abdirisak Mohammed Warsme Fiqi, the consultative leader of Imamu Shafici Islamic Court in Abudwaq, called on the people to be ready for a jihad war with Ethiopia and Ethiopian troops in the region.
Witnesses also said the new arrived Ethiopian troops were patrolling in and around Ballanballe, searching cars.
Ethiopian military maneuver was also reported in the Ethiopian Somali administered region of Ogaden.
Last week Islamic Courts headquartered in the Somali capital Mogadishu gave the Ethiopian troops seven days to withdraw its troops from Somalia or that it would face an Islamic jihad war. An ultimatum will last Tuesday (tomorrow).
Ethiopian troops that were inside Hiran province, central Somali, have reportedly gone back to Ethiopian border on Monday. The troops were accompanied by militias loyal to former defeated warlords Mohammed Dhaere who controlled Jawhar town, 90 km (55 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu and Dabageed who controlled Hiran province.
The Ethiopian military movement came as hours are left for Islamic Courts to decide whether they would launch a holy war on the Ethiopian troops in the country.
Diplomats fear that if a war broke out in Somalia, it would turn into a regional war. United Nations urges Somalia's vying parties to go to the negotiating table in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to reconcile over their differences.
Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.
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