Ethiopia’s foreign minister cautioned that weapons supplied to Somalia might worsen the conflict and potentially end up in the hands of terrorists, as reported by Ethiopia’s state news agency on Tuesday.
His remarks followed the arrival of an Egyptian warship that delivered heavy weaponry in Mogadishu, marking the second shipment within a month after Egypt and Somalia signed a joint security agreement in August.
Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia combating al Qaeda-linked insurgents, has seen relations deteriorate with Mogadishu over plans to develop a port in the secessionist region of Somaliland.
This disagreement has pushed Somalia closer to Egypt, a country that has long clashed with Ethiopia over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Taye Astke Selassie, voiced concern that ammunition supplied by “external forces could worsen the already fragile security and end up in the hands of terrorists in Somalia,” according to the Ethiopia News Agency.
Somalia’s government has yet to respond to these comments.
“The risk of these weapons falling into the wrong hands is significant. Al Shabaab is a key beneficiary, having seized large quantities of arms in 2023 by raiding enemy bases,” said Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the Sahan Research think-tank.
After the U.N. Security Council lifted Somalia’s 30-year arms embargo in December, Ethiopia made an agreement in January to lease 20 km (12 miles) of coastline from Somaliland, a region that claims independence and has functioned autonomously since 1991, in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty.
In response, Somalia warned that it would expel Ethiopia’s peacekeeping troops by the end of the year unless the port agreement was revoked.
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