The diary of Agazi soldier

(By an Agazi Soldier in Humera Shaleka)
Translated by Meqdela
It was one hazy dawn in the month of March. It had been more than three weeks since we got back to Ethiopia after completing our mission in Somalia. I am a member of the Humera Regiment of the Agazi Division which was at the forefront of the war in Somalia.

After completing our mission in Somalia in December and January, we were withdrawn from Mogadisu and put in Moyale. Our commanders had promised us all Ethiopian soldiers would be withdrawn from Somalia soon. We believed we were never going to return to Somalia.

That day, however, we were ordered to be ready to go back. Mogadisu had returned to disaster and a surge of Ethiopian troops was needed. Many of the soldiers in the Army didn’t want to go back; but as soldiers we had no option but to obey the orders of our commanders.

The following day we heard 120 soldiers amongst us escaped from the camp. We knew they would be captured soon. The Wogagen Regiment of the Agazi Division was dispatched immediately. The road leading to Addis Ababa and the major towns in the way were sealed, all buses and trucks searched. We heard that even farm lands were inspected. Sixty one were caught within two days.

A week after we were ordered to be ready, our regiment was dispatched to Mogadishu. Mogadishu was completely changed within two months. Even in the North, people were hostile to us. These were the same people who greeted us warmly when we arrived in Mogadishu first time. It is a torture. We were shelled incessantly. As we didn’t know when the mortar fires were coming, we had to stay day and night awake. We stopped smoking cigarettes because it was too dangerous to buy cigarettes from shops in Mogadishu. Some soldiers were attacked with knives when they try to light their cigarettes in shops. Women, children, all were hostile. We didn’t know who our enemies were.

In Mogadishu, if you see a weak-looking man with no teeth, having lost them chewing Chat, and you think that he is harmless, you are dead. Attacks can come from anywhere. If you stop to pee on the street, people will fire at you. When you follow them, they will get in houses and most of the time what you find in those houses are women and children. Mogadishu is hell.