A column of more than twenty trucks full of Ethiopian soldiers and their belongings were moving along the road linking Baidoa and the capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.
"The soldiers waved to the displaced people in the Elasha camps," said Muse Farah, an eyewitness in the camps along the road between Mogadishu and Afgooye, 30 km northwest of the capital.
Ethiopian troops, whose presence in Somalia has been unpopular with most Somalis, have been preparing for withdrawal since the Ethiopian government announced, in a letter sent last month to the African Union and the United Nations, its decision to pull its troops out of Somalia by the end of last year.
Ethiopia said it will finally withdraw its troops from Somalia during the first week of this month after a number of previous deadlines failed because of logistical difficulties.
Ethiopian troops have since been setting up bases along the road between Mogadishu and the southern town of Baidoa, the seat of the Somali parliament.
The route is a possible exit for Ethiopian troops who have remained deployed in Somalia after they crossed into the country in late 2006 to help Somali government forces oust an Islamist administration that run much of south-central Somalia.
However, the insurgents have since been carrying out daily attacks on the Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government forces as well as the 3,400 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi in Mogadishu.
The insurgents have gained ground and are now in control of almost all of central and southern Somalia while the Somali government only controls Mogadishu and Baidoa.
SOURCE: Xinhua. Friday, January 02, 2009