大象传媒

Pipeline explosion.

Some texts on this subject:

Emmanuel
The cost of fuel occasioned by it's scarcity is what makes pipeline-bursting an attractive prospect. May God dry up all the oil-wells in Nigeria.

Thomas
The pipeline explosion was tragic but not surprising. People don鈥檛 seem 2 learn and the govt is insensitive 2 its responsibility.

Somalia.

Yeshivas is in Addis Abbaba: 鈥淚 support the Ethiopian government action. We are being invaded by terrorists in my opinion. The Ethiopian government鈥檚 actions are justified.鈥�

Mohammed Amir is in the studio with Wondimu Mekonnen.

Wondimu: 鈥淣ot true. The Ethiopian people are against this war. It is a proxy war from outside.鈥�

Yeshivas: 鈥淭here are many fighters from outside coming in threatening us. We have been waiting for a while and we have come to this point. The government is protecting itself from foreign terrorists.鈥�

Mohammaed Amir is from Somalia: 鈥淗ow can we justify Zenawi鈥檚 words? There are no foreign fighters in Somalia.鈥�

Jon, Ethopia has e-Mailed:
The Union of Islamic Courts is a terror organisation. Its leaders have been closely involved with terrorists. So why should we Ethiopians tolerate them.

Buba in Belgium says:
The Ethiopian P M is very confident but I hope he & the A U have a plan after the conflict.

Robat has called in: 鈥淭he AU needs to stop the Ethiopian interference. What the Ethiopian PM said is not true. To say there are foreigners is a pretext.鈥�

Henak phoned us from the States on +44 20 70 83 72 72: 鈥淭he 大象传媒 should refrain from saying Ethiopia is a Christian country fighting an Islamic country. Ethiopians are not fighting Somalians. Zenawi is fighting to get support from the US.鈥�

Mohammed Amir, originally from Somalia but now in London: 鈥淭his regime locked up all the opposition leaders.鈥�

We鈥檙e back from the news and are continuing on with the Somalia/Ethiopia debate.

An e-Mail is in:

This war is to dominate the Horn by minority regime which is rejected by Ethiopians in May 2005. They wanted to destroy the Ogaden National Liberation Movement and OLF currently that formed an alliance called AFD six months ago. USA does not care about democracy and armed and financed the regime to do a dirty job for them which is terrorizing its own citizens. This is a war against Somalis and Ethiopians.
Tedla, New York

Farah is in America and called us live on +44 20 70 83 72 72: 鈥淭he world is making a mistake allowing Ethiopia to venture into Somalia.鈥�
Hisham called us too, from France: 鈥淭he AU is the biggest club of dictators on the planet. Exclude Nigeria, Liberia and SA then all the members are dictators. However unpleasant the Islamists can be this is not justified.鈥�

Mohammed Amir: 鈥淪omalia already has it鈥檚 own problems. The UIC did great job I the South. The UIC came from the government鈥檚 mistakes.鈥�

Wondimu: 鈥淭he AU is an organisation that should be fighting against colonialism. Most of them are dictators. The AU should tell the Ethiopian soldiers to pull out its soldiers. Somalia is a sovereign country. The action is endangering our own Ethiopian people.鈥�

A lot of texts are coming in on this topic . . .

Yusupha Dampha
The AU's backing of Ethopian agression in Somalia is setting a very dangerous precedence. Diplomacy would have saved lives getting lost.

Anon
AU and Ethiopia are Americans stooges. AU has lost her credibility.

Anon
By the logic of the African Union it follows that now AU has authorized Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Chad and so on to wage war.

Some e-Mails have come in to worldhaveyoursay@bbc.co.uk:

What do you make of the UIC threat to attack Ethiopian capital, isn't that terrorism?.
The entire African continent is behind the Somali interim Government, that includes Ethiopia. UIC made a statement on 大象传媒 calling for Jihadist from all over the world to go to Somalia and fight the "holy war". Mr Meles, go ahead.
Ogwang, Abeche, Chad.

Is there a problem in the world that America is not blamed for? I fully expected to hear that the Nigerian pipeline explosion was the fault to George W. Bush!
Joe, Los Angeles

Yousef has called in: 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 help people by bombing them.鈥�

What do you make of the Union Islamic Courts threat to attack the Ethiopian capital, isn't that terrorism?
PAUL in CHAD

ANON
It's a failure from everybody - AU,UN, EU, Arab league.

Sulay Nsubong, Jos, Nigeria.
Ethiopia should exercise restraint. it is the seat of AU. It should not destroy the new AU union

Kingsley: 鈥淭here is no fuel to travel. The price on the black market is three times the official price because there is a scarcity.鈥�

Some more texts are coming in:

SAKIRU
My country is a lawless country and i beileve the leaders are using the blood of the masses 4 self protection.

IMORU VICTOR, BENIN CITY, NIGERIA
nigerians quest to enrich themselves,even,with unpatrotic means was the cause of this explosion.govt should not be blame.

Davies in Zaria
The pipe line carnage in Lagos smacks of the deceits and hypocricy that goes with governance in Nigeria what a shame - African GIANT- indeed

It's the Nigerian's government's fault for not maintaining the pipelines well. Where else do pipelines leak?
OBKWE

FRANKLIN, Douala, Cameroon
What has happened in Nigeria is what will happen to most African countries if the masses find a punctured pipeline. African leaders have made their people so miserable that they are ready to do anything in order to live well.

A cracking debate. To all those who phoned in wanting to contribute to the Ethiopia/Somalia debate our apologies but we had so many of you wanting to contribute. Also, we had a complaint from Keddy in the US about the lack of opinion from the Ethiopian government view. I鈥檓 aware that we had very few people on supporting the Ethiopian government but as I explained to Keddy from Washington DC, I tried all day to get this view and found only one person.

Remember 鈥� we ask you to set the agenda so check out the morning blog post we do at around 11am GMT (London time) every day. It is in this post that we let you, Dear Listener, know what we will be covering on each day.

Good night.