Somali conflict crosses borders
Ethiopia accuses neighbors of supporting an ethnic Somali rebel group that attacked a Chinese-run oil installation this week, killing 74 people.
from the April 26, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The clashes took place in Abole, a small town about 75 miles from the regional capital, Jijiga.
In a statement released hours after the raid, the ONLF claimed responsibility for the attack and said its commando unit had destroyed the facility.
The rebel group justified the attack by saying ethnic Somalis had been cleared from their land and forcefully removed from their homes by Ethiopian troops to make way for the Chinese firm.
The statement threatened further action against oil companies that struck deals with the Ethiopian government.
"We urge all international oil companies to refrain from entering into agreements with the Ethiopian government .... Oil investments in Ogaden will result in a similar loss for any firm that believes assurances of security it receives from the Ethiopian government which has never been in effective control of Ogaden."
The attack was condemned in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Abdi Wafa, a political science lecturer at Addis Ababa University and an Ethiopian of Somali ethnicity from the same region where the attack took place, said: "It was cowardly. As a Somali and an Ethiopian, I don't feel good about it at all. I don't think the families of the innocent victims will forgive them."
Tensions throughout the region have been ratcheted up in the past year following the emergence of Somalia's Islamists. They took control of Mogadishu last June and spread rapidly across the country.
They were defeated in December by US-backed Ethiopian troops sent by a government concerned at the rise of Islamic extremism on its doorstep.
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