Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia by end of year

Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia says it will withdraw its troops from war-ravaged Somalia by the end of the year.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahide Bellay says the African Union and United Nations have been notified of Ethiopia’s decision.

Bellay was speaking by telephone Friday from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia entered Somalia at the end of 2006 to support the shaky U.N.-backed government against an Islamist administration that had seized the capital of Mogadishu and much of the south.

The Ethiopian troops were initially successful, but the Islamists have since launched an Iraq-style insurgency and now hold most of southern and central Somalia. The government controls Mogadishu and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa.