Cuban Troops to Start Leaving Ethiopia
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HAVANA — Cuban troops sent to Ethiopia to help the Marxist government in its war against Somalia will start leaving Saturday, the Cuban armed forces said in a statement Thursday.
The statement did not give details on the number of soldiers who will leave. At the height of the fighting in 1978, Cuba was believed to have about 20,000 troops in Ethiopia, and in January, 1984, it began reducing its troops in the African country from 10,500 to 3,000.
The first Cuban military advisers were sent to Ethiopia in April, 1977, and Cuban troops later took part in the fighting that led to the defeat of the Somali forces.
Cuba’s announcement Thursday coincided with the start of peace talks in Atlanta between the Ethiopian government and guerrillas fighting for independence for Ethiopia’s northern province of Eritrea.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who achieved the Camp David agreement between Israel and Egypt during his presidency, is hosting the open-ended negotiations aimed at halting Ethiopia’s 28-year-old Eritrean civil war, Africa’s longest-running conflict.
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