Safety officers within the capital Mogadishu say an Egyptian ship has delivered a considerable amount of navy tools to Somalia.
Somali Protection Minister Abdulkader Mohamed Noor Thanks Egypt in a social media submit There isn’t a particular point out of weapons.
It’s Egypt’s second such supply in a month as relations between Somalia and its neighbor and as soon as shut ally Ethiopia bitter.
Ethiopia’s long-time rival Egypt has taken the chance to maneuver nearer to Somalia, sparking fears of rising tensions within the Horn of Africa.
Reuters quoted safety and port officers as saying {that a} warship arriving on Sunday was carrying navy cargo together with anti-aircraft weapons and artillery.
A BBC reporter in Mogadishu witnessed weapons being transported via the streets of the town.
Within the submit on
“Somalia has handed the stage of taking orders and is ready for affirmation from different international locations with whom it would have interaction,” he wrote.
“We all know our pursuits and we are going to select between allies and enemies. Thanks Egypt.”
This sentiment is a results of modifications within the Horn of Africa Alliance.
For years, Ethiopia has been a staunch supporter of the Mogadishu authorities’s crackdown on Al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab.
However Somalia is offended that landlocked Ethiopia signed a preliminary cope with the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland earlier this 12 months to lease a part of its shoreline. Somalia considers Somaliland a part of its territory.
In the meantime, Addis Ababa and Cairo have been at loggerheads for greater than a decade over Ethiopia’s building of an enormous hydroelectric dam on the Nile River. Egypt believes this might pose a risk to the volumes of river water it depends on.
Somaliland, which isn’t internationally acknowledged, mentioned it was “deeply shocked” by the arms shipments.
“In an already fragile surroundings, the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons exacerbates the chance of an arms race, with factions probably searching for to accumulate their very own stockpiles to safeguard their pursuits,” Somaliland’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned in a press release.
Over the weekend, Egypt referred to as on residents dwelling in Somaliland to depart for safety causes, an additional signal of tensions within the area.
This isn’t the primary time weapons have arrived in Somalia from Egypt. In August, two Egyptian navy plane delivered weapons and ammunition to Mogadishu.
The supply follows an settlement signed throughout Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed’s state go to to Cairo in early August.
Ethiopia mentioned on the time that it couldn’t “stand idly by whereas different actors take steps to destabilize the area.”
Somalia’s protection minister hit again, saying Ethiopia ought to cease “crying” as a result of everybody “will reap the implications” – a reference to the deteriorating diplomatic relations between the 2 international locations.
Ethiopia at the moment has 3,000 troops in Somalia as a part of African Union forces supporting the federal government. There are at the moment plans for as much as 5,000 Egyptian troopers to affix the brand new AU power by the top of the 12 months, with an additional 5,000 reportedly to be deployed individually.
Extra reporting by Teklemariam Bekit in Nairobi
