An Egyptian ship has delivered a big consignment of army tools to Somalia, safety officers within the capital, Mogadishu, are quoted as saying.
Somali Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur thanked Egypt in a social media publish with out particularly mentioning the weapons.
That is the second such supply from Egypt in a month as relations deteriorate between Somalia and its neighbour and one-time shut ally Ethiopia.
Egypt, a long-time rival of Ethiopia, has taken the chance to maneuver nearer to Somalia, stoking issues about rising tensions within the Horn of Africa.
The army cargo, carried on a warship that arrived on Sunday, included anti-aircraft weapons and artillery, the Reuters information company experiences citing safety and port officers.
A BBC reporter in Mogadishu himself noticed weapons being transported by means of the streets of the town.
In his publish on X, Mr Nur is pictured together with his again to the digicam a docked naval vessel.
“Somalia has handed the stage the place they have been dictated to and awaited the affirmation of others on who it can have interaction with,” he wrote.
“We all know our personal pursuits, and we’ll select between our allies and our enemies. Thanks Egypt.”
This sentiment is a results of shifting alliances within the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia has for years been a staunch backer of the federal government in Mogadishu in its combat towards al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab.
However Somalia is livid that landlocked Ethiopia signed a preliminary deal originally of this yr with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease a bit of its shoreline. Somalia sees Somaliland as a part of its territory.
In the meantime, Addis Ababa and Cairo have been at loggerheads for greater than a decade over Ethiopia’s development of an enormous hydroelectric dam on the River Nile. Egypt sees this as a attainable risk to the quantity of water flowing down the river, which it depends on.
Somaliland, which isn’t recognised internationally, stated it was “deeply alarmed” by the weapons cargo.
“The unchecked proliferation of arms in an already fragile surroundings heightens the chance of an arms race, with varied factions possible searching for to amass their very own stockpiles with a purpose to safeguard their pursuits,” Somaliland’s ministry of international affairs stated in a press release.
On the weekend, in an additional signal of the strains within the area, Egypt known as on its residents dwelling in Somaliland to go away for safety causes.
This isn’t the primary time weapons have arrived in Somalia from Egypt. In August, two Egyptian army planes delivered arms and ammunition to Mogadishu.
That supply got here after a deal signed earlier in August throughout a state go to to Cairo by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Ethiopia stated on the time that it couldn’t “stand idle whereas different actors take measures to destabilise the area”.
Somalia’s defence minister hit again, saying Ethiopia ought to cease “wailing” as everybody “will reap what they sowed” – a reference to their worsening diplomatic relations.
Ethiopia presently has 3,000 troops in Somalia as a part of an African Union drive supporting the federal government. There’s now a plan for as much as 5,000 Egyptian troopers to hitch a new-look AU drive on the finish of the yr, with one other 5,000 reportedly to be deployed individually.
Extra reporting by Teklemariam Bekit in Nairobi