An Egyptian warship has supplied a second major stockpile of weaponry to Somalia including anti-aircraft guns and artillery, officials stated, in a move likely to stoke additional conflict between the two countries and Ethiopia.
“A shipment of Egyptian military aid has arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu to support and build the capabilities of the Somali army,”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry stated.
The cargo
“reaffirms Egypt’s ongoing central position in supporting Somali efforts to expand the national capabilities necessary to fulfil the aspirations of the Somali people for security, stability, and development,”
the ministry stated in the statement. Egypt provided its first round of military aid to Somalia in more than four decades in August. Relations between Egypt and Somalia have grown this year over their shared distrust of Ethiopia, prompting Cairo to ship several planeloads of arms to Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, after the nations signed a joint security pact in August.
The Egyptian warship started unloading the weapons. Security forces blocked off the quayside and encompassing roads as convoys harboured the weapons to a Defence Ministry building and nearby military bases, two port staffers and two military officials said. Nasra Bashir Ali, an official at Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre’s office, published a photo on her X account of Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur monitoring as the ship was being unloaded.
Ethiopia enraged Mogadishu by agreeing to a preliminary agreement in January with the breakaway region of Somaliland to rent land for a port in exchange for likely recognition of its independence from Somalia. Ethiopia also has at least 3,000 soldiers stationed in Somalia as part of a peacekeeping endeavour called the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), which is operating to suppress an armed uprising, while an assessed 5,000-7,000 soldiers are deployed in other areas under a bilateral agreement.
Somalia has called the Somaliland contract an assault on its sovereignty and declares it wants all Ethiopia’s soldiers to depart at the end of the year unless Addis Ababa ditches the agreement. Meanwhile, Egypt, at probabilities with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of an extensive hydro dam on the headwaters of the Nile River, has criticised the Somaliland deal. In January this year, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi expressed Cairo stands shoulder to shoulder with Somalia.
“Egypt will not allow anyone to threaten Somalia or affect its security,”
el-Sisi stated,
speaking at a news meeting with visiting Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Cairo has also presented to contribute soldiers to a new peacekeeping assignment in Somalia, the African Union said in July, though it has not remarked on the matter publicly.
