The Somali Government had accused Ethiopia of peddling weapons on Tuesday amidst fears that arms going into the conflict-ridden Horn of Africa nation could end up in the hands of Islamist militants.
The neighbours had exchanged insults a day after an Egyptian warship offloaded heavy weaponry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the second shipment since a security pact in August.
Ethiopia– a landlocked nation has had to battle thousands of troops in Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents, which has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland in exchange for feasible recognition of its sovereignty.
This ongoing disagreement spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt (a country that has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the Nile River).
Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Taye Atske Selassie said he was concerned arms from “external forces would further exacerbate the fragile security and would end up in the hands of terrorists in Somalia,” Ethiopia News Agency reported.
Somalia has made threats to deport Ethiopia’s troops by the end of the year if the port deal was not scrapped.
Recall that the U.N. Security Council had withdrawn an over three-decade arms embargo on Somalia in December.
