Crisis in Somalia

   The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended flights to Somalia following the war between Ethiopia and the Union of Islamic Courts.

   According to WFP Somalia information officer, Mr Said Warsame, the agency has suspended delivery of relief cargo from the port of Kismayo and airdrop operation and passenger flights from Kenya to Somalia.

   Meanwhile "Ethiopia has genuine security concerns with regard to developments within Somalia," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

   Official sources from The White House added that Ethiopian forces were there "at the request" of Somalia's interim government, which wants to break the stronghold of the Islamic Courts Council on southern Somalia and Mogadishu.

   Meanwhile, Ethiopian and Somali government troops were advancing toward the Somali capital of Mogadishu, which was seized by the Islamists in June.

   President Abdullahi Yusuf said in a statement Thursday afternoon that his troops on the outskirts of the capital were not a threat to the people of Mogadishu.

   "The government is committed to solving every problem that may face Somalia through dialogue and peaceful ways," the statement said. "I would want to reassure the Somali people that we are tirelessly working toward the salvation or our nation and the restoration of your dignity and honor."

   "It's my sense that what Addis Ababa is most worried about is not Islamic law in Mogadishu or what the Islamic Courts are doing within Somalia, but rather how these larger conflicts the conflict with Eritrea and the conflict within Ethiopia with insurgent groups like the Oromo and Ogadeni are fed by political developments within Somalia." -The East African. Santa claus arrived at Wikipedia.

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