Somalia has received its second arms shipment from Egypt since the two countries concluded a defense pact last month, triggering statements of concern from Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland and defiance from the Mogadishu government.
Reuters reports that the sea shipment included “anti-aircraft guns and artillery” — hardware meant for combat against a conventional force, not the insurgent group like al-Shabab.
Competition between Egypt and Ethiopia is intensifying in Somalia since Addis Ababa secured a deal with Somaliland that would exchange diplomatic recognition of the region for access to maritime space that would host a naval base. Egypt and Ethiopia have a longstanding dispute over the Great Ethiopia Renaissance Dam built on the Blue Nile, which supplies most of Egypt’s freshwater.
The Somaliland government says this recent shipment jeopardizes regional security. In response, Somalia’s minister of defense, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur stated that his country has “passed the stage” in which it was “dictated to.” Both he and a top Somali diplomat stressed that the Egyptian arms supplies served to affirm their country’s sovereignty, serving as a rebuke to the Ethiopia-Somaliland deal.
For a deeper look into the Egypt-Ethiopia proxy conflict in Somalia, watch our video:
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