Bartamaha (Nairobi):- The Ethiopian troops who recently entered in Elberde district in Bakol region have jailed more well-known Somali clerics there in southern Somalia, witnesses, officials told Shabelle radio on Friday.
Residents confirmed that about 15 famous clerics had been arrested by the Ethiopian troops who were continuing operations in parts of the district since they entered the district.
Witnesses said that the Ethiopians imprisoned the clerics for suspicion that they had had a close relation with Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen who seized the district and controlled it for hours over the past few days adding they arrested at the police stations of the transitional government administration in the region.
One of the residents who declined his name to be in print said that the Ethiopian troops were searching the detained Sheiks who were in the jails of the TFG in parts of the region
On the other hand Abdifatah Ibrahim Gesey, the governor of the transitional government administration in the region still insists that there were no Ethiopian troops in the region
Pointing out that the clerics were jailed by the transitional government after suspected.
People in the district expressed concern about the presence of Ethiopian troops and their operations jailing clerics and teenagers of the district saying that there were some teenagers missing so far.
———
Source:- Allafrica
