Fortress Ethiopia

From the coastal plain around Berbera to the mountains, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The BBC reports heavy fighting in Mogadishu again last night. The Ethiopians are still there, supporting their puppets, the Transitional Federal Government.

There was a very interesting article in The Somaliland Times this week, originating in Sudan which points out that Ethiopia has very little interest in ensuring national reconciliation in Somalia as this might lead to a stronger, more prosperous Somalia, which is not something which the Ethiopian Government is really wanting, a strong neighbour being seen as a threat. The US does apparently want to see a reconciled Somalia but seems to have a greater interest in keeping Ethiopia sweet than anything else. Ethiopia is the US's fortress against the Muslim powers elsewhere in the region.

The article explains that this is why the US consistently and continuously supports Ethiopia in its cold war against Eritrea, whereby the impossibly weak and impoverished state of Eritrea is blamed for terrorist attacks in Addis Ababa (no evidence to support this claim), supporting the Islamists in Somalia (even though none were found) and so on.....

On the other hand, as far as Somaliland goes, Somaliland seems to have a very good relationship with Ethiopia, so who knows? Maybe this good relationship can be leveraged to finally obtain AU (and then world-wide) recognition of Somaliland. Its a strange world.