An Egyptian ship has delivered a major consignment of army gear to Somalia, safety officers within the capital, Mogadishu, are quoted as saying.
Somali Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur thanked Egypt in a social media post 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 considerations 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 studies citing safety and port officers.
A BBC reporter in Mogadishu himself noticed weapons being transported by the streets of the town.
In his put up on X, Mr Nur is pictured together with his again to the digital camera 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’ll interact 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 in opposition to al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab.
However Somalia is livid that landlocked Ethiopia signed a deal firstly of this yr with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease a piece 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 unlimited hydroelectric dam on the River Nile. Egypt sees this as a potential menace to the quantity of water flowing down the river, which it depends on.
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 mentioned 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 at present has 3,000 troops in Somalia as a part of an African Union pressure supporting the federal government. There’s now a plan for as much as 5,000 Egyptian troopers to hitch a new-look AU pressure on the finish of the yr, with one other 5,000 reportedly to be deployed individually.
Further reporting by Teklemariam Bekit in Nairobi
