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Eritrea did not fly arms to al Shabaab last Oct: UN

By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Eritrea did not airlift arms to Islamist militants in the Somali town of Baidoa late last year, a preliminary U.N. report has found, pouring cold water on a charge

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Eritrea did not airlift arms to Islamist militants in the Somali town of Baidoa late last year, a preliminary U.N. report has found, pouring cold water on a charge that sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Kenya accused Eritrea in November of delivering caches of weapons to al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked group battling to overthrow the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and fighting Kenyan troops in the south of Somalia.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied the accusation and said it is no enemy of Kenya’s

“The monitoring group’s preliminary assessment is that these reports were incorrect and that the alleged deliveries to Baidoa probably did not take place,” The U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea said in its latest report for December.

The U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) was established to keep an eye on violations of a two-decade old arms embargo on the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

“The SEMG will, however, continue to probe this matter and is awaiting additional information from the Kenyan authorities before reaching a final determination,” it said.

Nairobi said at the time it had intelligence that consignments of arms were flown to rebel-controlled Baidoa from Eritrea, and used the alleged deliveries as a pretext for launching air raids on rebel bases.

Kenyan officials have said that Eritrean denials are not enough, and that it should go further and denounce al Shabaab.

The east African country rolled into Somalia in mid-October to fight the Islamist insurgents, whom it blames for a slew of kidnappings on Kenyan soil. Ethiopia, too, has sent troops across its border, opening up a third front against the rebels.

“I urge all Muslims to start fire in Nairobi, Garissa and Addis Ababa. This time, the Christians are weak,” al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told reporters at a press conference held outside Mogadishu.

Britain believes Islamist militants are completing plans to attack Kenyan institutions and sites popular with expatriates and tourists.

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18 COMMENTS
  • ghezai January 18, 2012

    tesfaldet
    idiotes? look who is tolking .you are so Idiot #1.you are just a number

  • SINGAPO-ERITREAN January 18, 2012

    Dear Almaz ,

    Please read my comment again ,I am being sarcastic. Actually the ,KITMEKAN BIDKA KIKEFAKAN BIMANKA EKO AYKONEN. It is the same monitoring group who accused the wild-beasts (HIGI-GIDEF) reporting that the latest accusations by Kenya are baseless……………….you pointed out deserves to be told to Higdef mendef, I AM ON YOUR SIDE ……I AM DOING …….MASYA ,CHIRQAN , ACCUSING HIGDEF OF THE SAME POINT …please continue to criticize my opinions , but this one a case of misunderstanding .

    I love your name.

    • alex January 18, 2012

      I like the way you said it, one case of misunderstanding. NICE.

  • Zeray January 19, 2012

    PFDJ’ites follow this:
    When a thief gets caught once or twice the thief knows the eyes of the police are on him, and he takes a break. Otherwise it would be stupid to steal while the world is directly watching you. And nobody said PFDJ is stupid. I only say, to mention a few, they are cruel, inhumane, disrespectful to their own people (check the prisons) and selfish when it comes to power and they are torturous dictators. What matters most is what they are doing inside the country, not outside the country. As far as the UN and other monitoring group, of course they are going to check the one that had a bad record first before they check others. Even if they made a mistake on this record (we don’t know yet) that does not erase the past records. Additionally, it does not all of a sudden switch their devilish activities inside the country into angelic utopia.

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