Agence France Presse report

The speaker of Somalia’s interim parliament on Tuesday urged the international community to condemn Ethiopia for allegedly trying to topple his country’s transitional government.

“The aim of Ethiopia is to topple a legitimate government and establish a puppet regime by using violence through its agents,” Abdalla Derrow Issak, the president of the Transitional National Assembly (TNA), told AFP.

Relations between the TNG and Ethiopia have long been strained. A loose grouping of Somali factions opposed to the interim authority in Mogadishu was formed last year in Ethiopia, from where it makes most of its official pronouncements.

Issak claimed that Ethiopian troops were present in the southern Bay region of Somalia and in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast.

Last week, an armed Somali opposition group acknowledged that Ethiopian troops were present in Bay to help train its fighters.

“We are appealing for the intervention of United Nations, the Organisation of Africa Unity, the Arab League, the European Union, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development to urge Ethiopia to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Somalia,” said Issak.

“Ethiopian troops supported by huge war machines arrived Puntland on Monday. The Ethiopian contingents have maintained a presence also in the southern Manas village,” he added.

Reliable sources in Puntland said that some 80 Ethiopian soldiers arrived there on Monday.