A mysterious cargo plane believed to be loaded with weapons landed in the capital, setting off another round of allegations that Somalia's neighbors are using this chaotic Horn of Africa nation to fight a proxy war.
The US and other Western powers have expressed concern about Eritrea and Ethiopia meddling on opposite sides of the conflict in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns.
Somalia's virtually powerless government said the plane that landed on Wednesday was packed with land mines, bombs and guns from Eritrea and bound for an Islamic militia that has seized the capital and most of the rest of southern Somalia. Just hours later, a UN envoy confirmed Ethiopian troops were in Somalia to help the government, which controls just one town.
PHOTO: AP
"Ethiopia and Eritrea are competing throughout the region, opening up new fronts in their Cold War whenever the opportunity arises," said John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which monitors conflict zones.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a horrendously destructive border war from 1998-2000 and have backed rebel groups to destabilize each other in recent years. Somalia's transitional government has close ties to Ethiopia and the UN says Eritrea has reportedly backed the Islamic courts to counteract Ethiopia's growing influence.
The US also has been involved in the conflict in Somalia and has accused the Islamic militia of ties to Osama bin Laden's terror group. In recent tapes attributed to bin Laden, he urged Somalis to support the militants and warned nations not to send troops here.
The US secretly backed an alliance of warlords earlier this year when they tried to defeat the Islamic militia and capture three suspected al-Qaeda members who were allegedly hiding out within the group.
The warlords were defeated, and the US now supports the government.
It was not clear what role extremists from the wider Islamic world might play, though there have been repeated reports of foreign fighters among the Islamic militiamen. Journalists have obtained a recruitment video that shows Arab soldiers alongside Somali Islamic militiamen and encourages more Arab Islamic extremists to join the Islamic group.
Ethiopia and Eritrea deny being involved in Somalia, despite widespread witness accounts and reports by the UN.
In a report earlier this year, a UN committee monitoring the arms embargo on Somalia named Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen as countries backing the different factions fighting inside the country. Another country went unnamed, but was widely believed to be the US.
"Eritrea is only in there because of Ethiopia," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somalia Justice Advocacy Center in St Paul, Minnesota.
He added: "The US is simply extending its war on terrorism."
Eritrea's information minister, Ali Abdu, told reporters on Wednesday that although his country was not sending arms to the Islamic militia, Ethiopia was "exploiting the current situation in order to solve their historical dispute with Somalia."
Ethiopia and Somalia fought a war in the 1970s, but Somalia's president is allied with the country and has asked for its support. Ethiopia's foreign minister was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
"There are external parties involved on all sides," said Jendayi Frazer, the US State Department's top Africa official. "This is a problem."
On Wednesday, the plane, an Ilyushin-76, landed in Mogadishu, but was quickly ordered to leave by Islamic militiamen. The plane's tail carried a flag from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic that often charters its planes.
The UN special envoy to Som-alia, Francois Lonseny Fall, said on Wednesday a small number of Ethiopian troops are in Somalia.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS