Thursday August 29, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Egypt delivered arms to Somalia and will help train the country’s troops, a Somali official said, potentially intensifying tensions in the Horn of Africa nation that’s scrambling to impose control over a breakaway region.
The delivery follows a deal earlier this year for Ethiopia to recognize breakaway Somaliland’s sovereignty in return for a naval base and direct access to the Gulf of Aden. In response, Somalia sought assistance from Egypt and signed a military cooperation pact earlier this month.
“Guns and ammunition arrived yesterday,” Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ali Mohamed Omar said by phone of the Egyptian delivery. “The idea is to have in-house training and Egypt will supply some of that.”
Ethiopia and Egypt are also at loggerheads over the development of a giant hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, which the North African nation fears may affect the flow of its main source of fresh water.
Since 2006, Somalia has relied on foreign troops to help fight militant Islamist groups trying to overthrow the government. While about 13,000 soldiers in the current African Union peacekeeping mission are expected to leave by the end of year, the continental body has endorsed the creation of a replacement force.
Somalia will “under no circumstances” allow Ethiopian soldiers to join that new peacekeeping mission if the current deal with Somaliland still stands, Omar said. Donor nations are still discussing financing and composition of the new force, he said.
--With assistance from Mirette Magdy.