Does Eritrea back Somali insurgents?
Sudan's security forces arrested a Somali insurgent leader while he was attempting to cross the border to Eritrea, the Somali news website Mareeg Online reported March 14 from Mogadishu. Muse Abdi Arale, defense secretary for the Hizbul Islam group, was reportedly arrested while trying to enter in Eritrea with money embezzled from the rebel group. Sheikh Hassan Mahdi, a senior official from Hizbul Islam, confirmed this version of events to Mareeg Online.
Insurgency factionalized
Led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, Hizbul Islam is facing a leadership crisis since the defection of Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Al-Turki to the rival Shabab militia early this year. Last week, a senior Hizbul Islam leader, Bare Ali Bar, was shot to death in Mogadishu's Bakara district, a stronghold of the Shabab insurgents. (Sudan Tribune, March 14)
Also March 14, the insurgent faction led by Ahlu Sunna Walajama'a signed an agreement with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government at a meeting in Addis Abba, capital of neighboring Ethiopia. The two sides agreed to join forces and fight against the Shabab and other factions that remain in rebellion. (Mareeg Online, March 14)
Eritrea charges US propaganda
Eritrea's government is meanwhile denying US charges that it is backing the Somali insurgents, pointing to a new United Nations report finding that Asmara's support for the insurgency had either diminished or become less visible. Girma Asmerom, Eritrea's ambassador to Belgium, told Voice of America: "We are not only vindicated, that is the reality and that is what we’ve been saying. And we have never ever supplied any ammunition or financial support to anybody in Somalia. So, we have been criminalized and unjustly accused for our thinking out of the box, for just simply saying that Somalis must be left alone and they should resolve their problem through their internal dynamic reconciliation conference."
The report prepared by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia is scheduled to be presented to the Security Council this week. It finds Asmara violated a 2008 arms embargo against various armed groups in Somalia by supporting insurgents fighting the TFG, but that President Isaias Afewerki's government appears to have scaled down its military assistance while continuing to provide political, diplomatic and possibly financial support to insurgents. Last year, the Security Council imposed arms and travel sanctions on Eritrea for allegedly supporting the Somali insurgents.
The Security Council also expressed concern in the resolution over Asmara's rejection of the UN-backed 2008 Djibouti Agreement between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS). Eritrea accuses the United States of masterminding the recent UN-imposed sanctions. But diplomats reportedly said Uganda, which has peacekeeping troops in Somalia, drafted the resolution after the African Union called on the Council in May 2009 to punish Eritrea over its role in Somalia. (VOA, March 14)
Eritrea "belligerent and totalitarian" —but less so?
However, the UN report did state that in 2009 "the government of Eritrea has continued to provide political, diplomatic, financial and—allegedly—military assistance to armed opposition groups in Somalia."
EJ Hogendoorn, director of the Horn of Africa Project at the International Crisis Group, described the Eritrean regime as "very belligerent and totalitarian." However, he added: "That said, it does seem that the Eritrean support seems to have lessoned and it is possible that all this international pressure is having some impact." (Media Line, March 15)
Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed: Eritrean or Ethiopian?
Reports of the indictment in New York City last week of an Eritrean national named Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed on charges of aiding the Shabab have sparked controversy. While most media sources, citing the federal indictment, name the suspect as an Eritrean, the foreign ministry in his former home of Sweden asserts that he is originally Ethiopian. As he holds a permanent Swedish residence permit, Ahmed has a right to consular help from Sweden while on trial in New York, but the Foreign Ministry says that it has yet to receive such a request. (Radio Sweden, March 10)
See our last post on the Horn of Africa.
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NO BACKING FROM ERITREA
Associating with cheep propaganda can not bring a healthy atmosphere in the horn of Africa. To choose Eritrea in this cheep propaganda is shameful market. There is UFO nature and UFO technical equipment in this nation that can fly to transport weapons and ammunitions to Somalia. When all new how the world is functioning.
Ethiopia, Uganda, US gave 40 tonnes of ammunition to Al Shabab
Ethiopian Review, a very respectable and popular News and Editorial in Ethiopia and in the Ethiopian Diaspora reports the following:
Woyane is the Ethnic name of the Political party "Tigray People Liberation Front" but specifically the MLLT - Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray [Abay Tsehay; Meles Zenawi] (1985) (http://www.africa.upenn.edu/eue_web/soup_may.htm)
Meles Zenawi is the current "Prime Minister" of Ethiopia although his election for a second term was questionable as many voting irregularities occurred. His organization the MLLT (TPLF) are currently being called on their scandal of selling sandbags as "food" to AID groups(Bob Geldof) and then taking the money to buy weapons. Being their history of weapons smuggling, it is no surprise that such actions are taking in the Somali Civil War (propagated by External forces namely the US which provided 40 Tonnes of Weapons and Ammunitions in Somalia violating the Arms Embargo themselves). Now the question comes, How come Ethiopia and the US are Not Sanctioned for their Violation of the Arms Embargo in Somalia when there is AMPLE EVIDENCE to show their violation yet Eritrea is singled out? This really shows the duplicity of the UN Security Council as well as the United Nations as a so-called "International Organization"!
This UN Sanction 1907 was NEVER an "African" initiative as Museveni of Uganda nor Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia are Legitimate leaders of Uganda nor Ethiopia (both are known client regimes of the US State Department)
UN Report: Woyane is supplying arms to Al Shabab
Postby revolutions on Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:35 pm
(AFP) Ethiopia and Yemen primary sources of arms supply to Somalia: UN report
"The report also found that "arms, ammunition, or dual-use equipment continue to enter Somalia in violation of the general and complete arms embargo imposed in 1992, at a fairly steady rate." Primary sources of this supply remained Yemen and Ethiopia, it said"
Ethiopia arming Shabab?
You find interesting news reports, but what is with this weird habit of making your entire post a hyperlink? Yes, AFP did say March 15 that according to the UN report, Yemen and Ethiopia remain the primary sources of arms for the Somali insurgents. But the implication seems to be that for Ethiopia it is a matter of corruption, while for Eritrea it is a matter of policy. I'm not sure how much political sense it makes for the Ethiopians to arm their sworn enemies...
So,Somalia don´t need
So,Somalia don´t need weapons from Eritrea, because like you said the corrupts are in Somalia. Why then these all allegation?
80% of arms in Somalia are from Ethiopia and the 20% from America and Yemen. Eritrea has nothing to do in this dirty Ethiopian-American game. Eritrea is just punished for her true stance and that´s why shame on America.
I can't belive the editors
I can't belive the editors of ww4 are recycling the same garbage that is been said by "main streem media". I guess they don't care to find out what is the truth. Bush cried a mashroom cloud when he invaded Iraq while the UN was a spectator on the whole fiasco. As the Eritrean gov asked a substancial of proof that would verifies their transagration however the monitoring group for "security reason" didn't want to disclosed LOL. Why bother to set up a court for criminals why not go back to the old ways in which 1 person is the judge, jury and excutioner. It's undeniable truth that all party of the Somali war lords along side the transitional government was invited in Asmara to find a peaceful solution however the TGF declined since there master and lord didn't approve( Ethiopia and US). As far as Uganda goes where they were when the genocide was happening in Ruwanda and Brundi???? I guess you got to packer up real good LOL. Our truth will come out to the light just as the light is shed over the invasion of Iraq but the usefulness of UN ceased long time. The next a war is a begging I'm afraid the world will be destroyed just because of a certain individuals and groups. Please editors of WW4 dont publish unsubstained blogs and senerious other wise file WW4 as a blog formatt.
Infophobia strikes again
Once again, fear of information is the surest sign of a hermetically sealed mind. Even if everything the US and UN are saying is lies, isn't it important to know what lies they are telling? Can't you view it as a barometer of how close imperialism is to intervention against Eritrea, rather than a mere parroting of propaganda? Or is any reportage of the claims illegitimate unless we get up on a soapbox and shout "IMPERIALIST LIES! IMPERIALIST LIES!"?
As for "recycling the garbage of the mainstream media"—Have the "mainstream media" offered in-depth reportage on the factionalism in the Somali insurgency? Seems to us our sources were Sudan Tribune, Mareeg Online and the left-wing Media Line—hardly the "mainstream media"! Have the "mainstream media" reported Sweden's denials of Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed's supposed Eritrean citizenship? I haven't see that reported anywhere but World War 4 Report and our own source, Radio Sweden!
I hate to disillusion you guys, but this website is not part of some vast anti-Eritrean conspiracy. We are just trying to figure out what is really going on in the Horn of Africa, as objectively as possible.
Eritrea's Policy is NON-Intervention in Somalia, not as implied
or claimed by the US State Department and the Western PropagandaPress/Media (NewYorkTimes, WashingtonPost, BBC, Reuters, Aljaazera, etc)
Proof that Eritrea's Policy is NON-Intervention in Somalia which means "Eritrea does NOT diplomatically, financially, militarily, nor politically support any faction in Somalia":
“We are not only vindicated that is the reality and that is what we’ve been saying. And we have never ever supplied any ammunition or financial support to anybody in Somalia. So, we have been criminalized and unjustly accused for our thinking out of the box, for just simply saying that Somalis must be left alone and they should resolve their problem through their internal dynamic reconciliation conference,” Girma Asmerom (Eritrean Ambassador) from Voice of America (VOA) "Eritrea is Unjustly Criminalized"
Eritrea doesn't have the financial nor physical reach to support Somalia. Eritrea has NO border with Somalia. Ethiopia shares a large undemarcated border with Somalia therefore this UN Sanction 1907 against Eritrea is based not on facts but the US State Departments policy of punishing small developing nations (Eritrea) that don't agree with the US's Interventionist policy in the region.
The US has been providing and propping up warlords in Somalia, a significant number of the TFG are warlords. The only country to officially break the arms embargo has been the US by giving 40 tonnes of weapons into Somalia to the corrupt TFG (which the UN has called out).