Relations between Egypt and Somalia have deteriorated this year due to mutual mistrust between them in Ethiopia.
An Egyptian warship has delivered a second large shipment of weapons to the Mediterranean, port and military officials said on Monday. Somalia It includes anti-aircraft guns and artillery in a move likely to lead to further friction between the two countries and Ethiopia.
Relations between Egypt and Somalia have deteriorated this year due to mutual mistrust in Ethiopia, prompting Cairo to send several planeloads of weapons to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, after the two countries signed a joint security agreement in August.
Ethiopia angered Mogadishu by agreeing to a preliminary deal in January with the breakaway region of Somaliland to lease land for a port in exchange for possible recognition of its independence from Somalia.
Egypt, which has been at odds with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a massive hydroelectric dam on the headwaters of the Nile, condemned the deal with Somaliland.
A diplomat said that Egyptian warship The unloading of weapons began on Sunday, and two port workers and two military officials told Reuters that security forces closed the port’s dock and surrounding roads on Sunday and Monday as convoys carried weapons to a defense ministry building and nearby military bases.
Security helicopters fly over Mogadishu’s seaport after an Egyptian warship arrived to deliver a second large shipment of weapons to Mogadishu. Reuters
Nusra Bashir Ali, an official in the office of Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, posted a photo on her Twitter account of Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur watching the ship being unloaded.
The Republic of Somaliland has expressed concern that weapons could end up in the wrong hands, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Egyptian media reported on Sunday that the Egyptian embassy in Mogadishu warned its citizens against traveling to Somaliland, due to the security situation in the region.
Ethiopia has at least 3,000 troops stationed in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission fighting Islamist rebels, while an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 troops are deployed elsewhere under a bilateral agreement.
Somalia has described the deal with Somaliland as an attack on its sovereignty and said it wants all Ethiopian troops to leave by the end of the year unless Addis Ababa scraps the deal.
Meanwhile, Egypt has offered to contribute troops to a new peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the African Union announced in July, though Cairo has not commented on the matter publicly.
The Ethiopian government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but has said in the past that it cannot stand idly by while “other actors” take measures to destabilize the region.
