’Many Cubans in Ethiopia’

Press, 4 October 1977, Page 8

’Many Cubans in Ethiopia’

0 t NZPA-Reuter Cairo s i A Somali Embassy official e in Cairo said yesterday that :, a large proportion of the ; Cuba troops in Angola had ! been withdrawn and sent to B Ethiopia. s The Soviet Union had • agreed to pay all trans- ’ portation expenses, the 1 official Middle East news 1 t agency quoted the official as ’saying. “The Soviet Union exerted . ’ strong pressure on Angolan President Agostinho Neto to approve the transfer of the Cuban troops from his coun- - try to Ethiopia,” the agency , f reported him as saying. 5 The agency quoted the ! Somali official as saying ' that Dr Neto’s recent visit I to the Soviet Union had • been to persuade Soviet ■ ’ leaders that the presence of the Cuban troops in Angola ' was in the interests of the • ■ security of Angola. J The official said the 1 : Soviet Union had decided to s . meet all the expenses of the f transportation of Cuban i , troops in addition to provid- ; ' ing them with supplies dur- i ’ ing their stay in Ethiopia, i j the agency added. , Embassy officials were not i J immediately available to i ’ r comment on the report. ] . The Ethiopian leader, Colonel Mengistu Haile-Ma- 1 riam has conceded that his i troops have suffered rever- i ses in fighting in three parts ; 5 of the country. 1 Colonel Mengistu, whose i

I remarks were broadcast i Radio Addis Ababa, assert- ) that Ethiopian forces wool > be able to regain their losse. in a short period of time. The Ethiopian Army ha lost virtually all of the Oga den territory in the south and east — with the excep tion of two towns — to an invasion by Somali guerrillas. Only three towns in the northern province of Eritrea where seccessionists art fighting to set up an inde pendent State, remain in Government hands. “Although anti-popular and anti-unity forces may have occasionally attained initial and temporary successes in certain aras in their war of invasion in collusion with the imperialists to disrupt Ethiopia’s unity and sabotage the revolution the Ethiopian masses will reverse the entire situation within a short period and emerge victorious,” Colonel Mengistu was quoted as saying. “The encirclement of this country has been intensified, and it has at present reached the stage where ant i-popular, anti-unity forces are stabbing the country in the back in the northern, eastern, and southern parts of the country.” Colonel Mengistu, who heads the ruling Dergue, or committee, made his re marks to a graduating clast at the nation’s police co] lege, according to the Stat radio, monitored in Nairobi.