Ethiopia worried over arms shipments to Somalia
Tuesday September 24 2024
Security helicopters hover above the Mogadishu Sea Port after an Egyptian warship docked to deliver a second major cache of weaponry in Mogadishu, Somalia on September 23, 2024. PHOTO | REUTERS
Ethiopia's foreign minister has warned that ammunition supplied to Somalia could exacerbate conflict and be diverted to terrorists, Ethiopia's state news agency reported on Tuesday.
His statement came a day after an Egyptian warship unloaded heavy weaponry in the capital Mogadishu, the second arms shipment in the space of a month following the inking of a joint security pact by Egypt and Somalia in August.
Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops stationed in neighbouring Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents, has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland.
The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa's construction of a vast hydro dam on the headwaters of the Nile River.
Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs Minister Taye Astke Selassie said he was concerned that the supply of ammunition by "external forces would further exacerbate the fragile security and would end up in the hands of terrorists in Somalia," Ethiopia News Agency reported.
There was no immediate response from Somalia's government to Taye's remarks.
"The potential for weapons landing in the wrong hands is high. Al Shabaab is a major beneficiary and in 2023 harvested massive quantities of weapons by conducting raids on enemy (bases)," said Rashid Abdi, an analyst with the Sahan Research think-tank.
Read: Somali militiamen seize heavy weapons after looting convoy
The UN Security Council lifted its arms embargo in December, more than 30 years after it was first imposed as Somalia plunged into civil war.
In January, Ethiopia agreed to lease 20km (12 miles) of coastline from Somaliland - a part of Somalia which claims independence and has operated with effective autonomy since 1991 - in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty.
In response, Somalia threatened to expel by the end of the year Ethiopia's troops, who are there as part of the peacekeeping mission and under bilateral agreements, if the port deal was not scrapped.