The Ethiopian troops who helped install Somalia's fledgling government in Mogadishu, its capital, began to pull out on Tuesday, officials from each country said.
Many Somalis say they now fear that a power vacuum will form and that the country will slip back into the lawlessness that has dominated it for much of the past 16 years.
"Why can't they stay?" asked Muhammad Omar Ali, a milkman in Mogadishu, as he watched truckloads of Ethiopians chug away. "They're leaving us to the bandits."
Ethiopia played a pivotal role in rearranging Somalia's internal politics last month when it sent tanks, jet fighters and thousands of troops to vanquish an increasingly aggressive Islamist movement that ruled most of south-central Somalia.
After routing the Islamist army, the Ethiopians paved the way for Somalia's transitional government, which until then was weak and divided, to take control of the country.
But the Ethiopians always insisted that they would not stay to police Somalia.
And though several African countries have mused about sending peacekeepers to help quell Somalia's volatile mix of warring clans, well-armed thugs and now a growing insurgency, a comprehensive peacekeeping force may be months away.
On Tuesday, 200 Ethiopian soldiers held a short goodbye ceremony at a defunct Somali air force base.
"We have arrived in Mogadishu in support of the transitional federal government troops," an Ethiopian commander said.
"We have successfully completed our mission. We respect the order of the Ethiopian government to withdraw from Somalia."
Some Somalis cheered.
Others said the equivalent of good riddance.
"Our enemy is finally leaving the country," grumbled Muhammad Gedi Nur, who was selling second-hand clothes on the street.
"Now we can bring back Islamic law."
Remnants of the Islamist army are suspected of the increasingly frequent attacks on transitional government soldiers and Ethiopian troops.
Despite the limited withdrawal that began on Tuesday, Ethiopian officials have reassured Somalia's leaders that many troops would remain until international peacekeepers arrive.
Western diplomats have expressed hope that the surrender to Kenyan authorities last week of Sheik Sharif Ahmed, a moderate leader of the Islamist forces, could be another solution.
As a well-respected figure among the Islamists and the influential Hawiye clan, he could help end the insurgency.
On Tuesday US diplomats said they were eager to talk to him.
"The US ambassador to Kenya plans to meet with Sheik Sharif later this week," the embassy said. "The ambassador will urge Sheik Sharif to counsel his supporters not to carry out violence and to support the development of an inclusive government."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not