Above: Gabre Yohannes Abate, the Ethiopian troop
commander in Somalia watches during a farewell ceremony
which took place in the presidential palace Tuesday Jan. 13,
2009 .The commander of Ethiopian troops has formally handed
over security of Somalia to joint force of Somali government
security and militiamen from a faction of the country’s Islamists.
(AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor)

Bloomberg
By Hamsa Omar
Jan. 27

An Islamist militia seized control of the Somali town of Baidoa, seat of the nation’s parliament, after Ethiopian forces withdrew from the country, a police official said.

The al-Shabaab militia occupied the town, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday morning, Colonel Amiin Mohamed, a police official, said by phone from Baidoa late yesterday. Al-Shabaab is a faction of the Islamic Courts Union.

“The Islamists entered the town without much resistance and at the moment they control the town,” Mohamed said.

Ethiopia’s Defense Ministry said yesterday it completed its withdrawal from Somalia, two years after invading its eastern neighbor to oust an Islamic Courts Union government that briefly controlled the country’s south. Read More.