Arms Smuggling And Militant Training In Horn Of Africa
Eritrea subjected to UN sanctions
Eritrea got an unwelcome Christmas present from the UN Security Council, when in a 13-0-1 vote the council opted for sanctions until such time that the country "ceases arming, training, and equipping armed groups and their members including al-Shabab." China reportedly abstained in the vote and predictably Libya, in a false understanding of solidarity, voted against the resolution, which nevertheless passed with a sufficient majority. Eritrea was previously already sanctioned by the African Union and then suspended their membership in the continental body, when their regime failed to cooperate with fact-finding missions and ever more allegations and circumstantial evidence of arms smuggling and training of Somali militant Islamic militias piled up.
Regime leaders and collaborating businesses are now also subject to travel bans, and a freeze of assets is reportedly underway for both individuals, as well as companies.
Only recently did the entire Eritrean national football team defect in Kenya after the CECAFA football tournament, incidentally won for a record 11th time by Uganda, and all players reportedly asked for and have since then obtained political asylum from the Kenyan government. In fact, Eritrean diplomats were in the more recent past expelled from Kenya for activities contrary to their diplomatic status.
The Eritrean regime is considered one of the harshest and most totalitarian on the entire continent and is still in dispute with their neighbors Ethiopia over border demarcations, which led to a war between the two countries. Compared to the overall population of Eritrea, the country produces the most refugees on a per capita basis in Africa, in itself a sign that all is not well in this country.
In response, the regime issued a statement which said the sanctions may "engulf the region into another cycle of conflict," and it can only be hoped that this is not a promise but an empty threat.
Comments
God be with UNSC. Shabias deserve war crime arrest.
The vote was 13-1-1. Fact check on the rest of the article.
all of this crisis in eritrea is true.
but there is also 2 genocides happening in eritrea
#1. the isaias regime wants to exterminate KUNAMA people
#2. the regime thinks evangelical eritreans are enemies and it is killing them in mass
please report about this too. NO MORE GENOCIDE!!! STOP THE GENOCIDE IN ERITREA!!!!!
What you need to ask is who is benefiting from this and who is pulling the strings.
Ethiopia is benefiting to the tune of $3billion, and the other countries that make the IGAD (Djibouti, Uganda etc) who instigated all this are the main beneficiaries of the WOT in Somalia.
It is typical concocted propaganda to hide their own involvement and Ethiopia’s crimes.
The sad thing is AU and UN are being used as a rubber stamps for the few countries adventures in Somalia and in the Horn of Africa.
In 2007 the UN monitoring group published the same falsified report that claimed 2000 Eritrean Special forces were dispatched to Somalia before the invasion, yet not a single Eritrean soldier was found dead or alive in Somalian soil. You are a journalist, go and ask the UN where did they vanish to ?
But there are evidence upon evidence of the US, Ethiopia, AU peace keepers running arms in Somalia. Here are few links from Reuters incase you have forgotten.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0728288520070407
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSL24158241._CH_.2400
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7417435.stm
Have you asked why the very Ilyushin 76 that the UN monitoring group accused Eritrea of using to transport arms, crashed in lake victoria transporting American Dyncorp contractors and AMISOM soldiers ?
http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/africoms-lake-victoria...
Well never mind, we live in make belief world, where Ethics and Justice does not exist
Some historical background.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4729800
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/18/ethiopia
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=42407
http://www.slate.com/id/2178793/
http://www.pca-cpa.org/showpage.asp?pag_id=1150
Illegal invasion of Somalia with UN and US complicity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VJka6q16Os
Somalia Crisis worse than Darfur, says UN
http://tinyurl.com/cern3e
Ethiopia’s ‘own Darfur’ as villagers flee government-backed violence
http://tinyurl.com/ysmvtc
Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in Ogaden
Donors Should Act to Stop Crimes Against Humanity
http://tinyurl.com/cg4ygx
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