Somalia today responded to the concerns expressed by the Ethiopian authorities about arms shipments delivered to Somalia by Egypt.
Earlier this week, Taye Atske Selaissie the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, in a meeting with UN officials, said that weapon shipments supplied by Egypt to Somalia could end up in the hand of Al Shabaab fighters. He accused Egypt of destabilizing the Horn of Africa by weaponizing Somalia.
Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, the Foreign Minister of Somalia, reacted to these Ethiopian concerns in a talk with a news agency. He said that this week the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somalia issued a statement, sharing details of how Ethiopia is illegally providing weapons to South West and Puntland regional states of Somalia. He claimed that Ethiopia is trying to divert the attention of international community from its illegal arms deliveries to Somalia’s federal member states by raising the issue of Egyptian arms shipments.
Ethiopia and Somalia have been locked in a dispute since January this year when landlocked Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with self declared country Somaliland. Somaliland is internationally recognized part of Somalia. Ethiopia wants to gain access to sea through Somaliland in return of recognizing Somaliland as a country.
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