African Union now lays into Eritrea

In a rather unprecedented move over the weekend has the African Union called upon the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Eritrea and other overt and covert supporters of the Somali milita

In a rather unprecedented move over the weekend has the African Union called upon the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Eritrea and other overt and covert supporters of the Somali militant Islamic militias, after being fed up with the deception and misleading statements coming from Asmara in the face of evidence to the contrary. This column last week in fact made reference to Eritreaโ€šs alleged involvement in supplying radical Islamic militia groups, many of which are thought to be pawns in Al Qaidaโ€šs fight for another safe haven on the African shores.

Ugandan troops form the back bone of the present AU peacekeeping force of about 4.000 and are presently involved in keeping at least part of the capital Mogadishu under control of the interim government, following territorial gains by the militias and imminent threats to take over the capital once again, where heavy fighting raged in recent days.

The African Union is not known to turn against ล’one of their ownโ€š so far and has broken with their usual practise of ล’quiet diplomacyโ€š which has clearly failed to persuade Eritrea to halt their covert support, a situation which has apparently also drawn their own declared enemy Ethiopia back into the conflict.

IGAD, another Eastern African regional grouping, has also thrown their weight behind the resolution and in fact proposed a full scale naval and aerial blockade of areas under control of the Islamic militias and against Eritrea, to stop the flow of weapons, material and fighters into Somalia, directly and via Eritrea.

IGAD has already suspended Eritrea which now also faces suspension from the African Union. The fighting in Somalia has caused concern in neighbouring Kenya, which shares a long border with Somalia open to infiltration, but also in the wider region, as piracy originating from Somali shores affects the trade lanes, makes imports and exports by sea more costly and has already caused delivery delays and losses of goods destined for Eastern Africa.

Cruise tourism, a hitherto strong source of revenue for the Seychelles, Kenya, Zanzibar and Tanzania, is also likely to see a downturn as fears for the safety of cruiseliners visiting the ports in the Indian Ocean region persist. Kenya and Tanzania have most recently agreed to joint naval patrols in their waters while Seychelles, with more limited naval assets, depends rather more on the international coalition to effectively patrol her waters and nab those pirates daring enough to operate nearly a thousand miles off their safe havens in pursuit of their bounty.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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