Ethiopia worried over arms shipment to Somalia, state news agency says

NAIROBI – Ethiopia’s foreign minister has warned that ammunition supplied to Somalia could worsen the fragile security situation and end up in the hands of terrorists, Ethiopia’s state news agency reported on Tuesday.

His statement comes 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.

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.

Taye made the comments at a meeting in New York with Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations Under Secretary General for Peacebuilding and Political Affairs.

There was no immediate response from Somalia’s government to Taye’s remarks.

In January landlocked Ethiopia agreed to lease 20 km (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. REUTERS