Kampala, May 28, 2007
SOMALIA will not regain peace and stability until the Ethiopian troops have been withdrawn, Khadija Aideed, the wife of the former Somalia president, General Mohammed Farrah Aideed has said.
Aideed served as Somali president between June 1995 and August 1996. He died on August 2, 1996 as a result of gunshot wounds sustained a week earlier in a fight with competing factions. However, Aideed's government was not internationally recognised.
In an exclusive interview at her residence in Kampala, Khadija, who has been in Uganda for the last 10 years as a guest of the Government, said: "I have been quiet for the last 10 years I have been here, but where things have reached, I need to add my voice (against the conflict) as a mother to the Somali people." Khadija said the deployment of Ethiopian troops was not the solution to the 17-year-old conflict that has raged in desert country. "Let them pull out of our territory. I also request other African Union member states to send more troops so that the Ethiopians can pull out," she said.
Khadija applauded the deployment of the Ugandan troops in Mogadishu saying: "What the UPDF has done is tremendous. Somalis love Uganda very much and can't attack them. I convey my condolences to the bereaved families, President and people of Uganda upon the death of the UPDF officers."
