At least 600 weapons were stolen in the past week from a former United Arab Emirates-run training center in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and are for sale in the city, weapons dealers said on Wednesday.
Weapons looted from a former United Arab Emirates (UAE) military training camp are displayed during a Reuters interview in Mogadishu, Somalia April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The weapons, including new Kalashnikov assault rifles and Chinese versions of them, were stolen by Somali National Army soldiers who had been trained by the UAE at its facility, three Somali men who purchased weapons from the soldiers told Reuters.
The Gulf nation has trained hundreds of Somali troops since 2014 as part of an effort boosted by an African Union military mission to defeat an Islamist insurgency and secure the country for the Somali government, which is backed by Western nations, Turkey and the United Nations.
The UAE ended the program on April 15, shortly after security forces at Mogadishu’s airport seized millions of dollars and temporarily held a UAE plane.
The escalating diplomatic dispute is one aspect of the fallout in volatile Somalia from a crisis in the Gulf region that has spilled into the Horn of Africa.
Somalia’s relations with the UAE are strained by a dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia because Mogadishu has refused to take sides. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have strong trading links with and influence in Somalia, offset by the sway of Qatar and its ally Turkey, one of Somalia’s biggest foreign investors.
Neither Somalia nor the UAE is showing urgent interest in resolving their dispute, said Rob Malley, president of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank.
Somali officials wanted to be seen “standing up” to the UAE, “and the Emirati officials’ position is, ‘If Somalia doesn’t want our money, fine, we’ll take it elsewhere,’” Malley told Reuters in Nairobi after returning from a trip to Mogadishu.