(Reuters): 1. EXCLUSIVE-Somalia army weapons sold on open market -U.N. monitors 2. EXCLUSIVE-Illegal Somali charcoal exports fuel Islamist rebels, warlords
EXCLUSIVE-Somalia army weapons sold on open market -U.N. monitors
Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:47pm GMT
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS Oct 11 (Reuters) - Somali army weapons and ammunition
continue to be diverted to open markets despite the government's pledges to
prevent its arms from leaking and ending up in the hands of Islamist
militants, U.N. investigators said in a new report.
The Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group, an 8-member panel of investigators
that monitors compliance with U.N. sanctions on the two countries, said
there had been improvements in government reports on the contents of its
armories but suggested the situation remained unsatisfactory.
"The Federal Government has not imported weapons into Somalia in full
compliance with its obligations pursuant to the modification of the arms
embargo by the Security Council," the group said in its confidential
482-page annual report, obtained by Reuters on Friday.
The report was submitted to the council's Somalia-Eritrea sanctions
committee.
The 15-nation Security Council's decision to ease Somalia's decades-old arms
embargo in March 2013 was a controversial one, although Washington supported
the Somali government's appeals for restrictions to be relaxed to enable it
to better arm its security forces to fight al Shabaab.
Earlier this year, the council extended a partial suspension of the
decades-old arms embargo on Somalia for eight months while highlighting
concerns about the possible diversion of weapons to al Qaeda-linked al
Shabaab militants. The government has pledged to crack down on arms
diversion.
In their new report, the monitors said a number of assault rifles provided
by Ethiopia and stored at the Halane armory had ended up for sale on the
streets of the Somali capital.
The group said it "obtained photographic evidence of several brand new Type
56-2 rifles observed in two Mogadishu markets between February and April
2014, which match the factory markings and sequence of serial numbers of
Type 56-2 rifles observed in the Halane weapons store."
It added that the weapons were "undeniably sourced from SNA (Somali army)
stockpiles" and noted that arms dealers selling them had confirmed that they
came from government stockpiles.
"Arms dealers also stated that al Shabaab agents were procuring weapons in
at least one of the markets," said the report, noting that the monitors had
viewed an al Shabaab propaganda video in which a militant was cleaning a
brand new Type 56-2 assault rifle.
"The Monitoring Group can only conclude that the weapons were sold illegally
by SNA officers taking advantage of poor accountability at the unit level,
or that these weapons have been leaked at a higher level and the SNA's
supporting documentation has been doctored or manufactured as cover for
missing weapons," the report said.
It added that the group has consistently received testimony from individuals
about high-level Somali involvement in direct transfers of the arms to
markets and to al Shabaab.
Other weapons have wound up on the markets of Mogadishu, including different
assault rifles with filed-off serial numbers. Arms dealers in the markets
said the weapons came from the Somali army and had originally come from
Yemen.
The group said that since the partial suspension of the arms embargo, the
various weapons Somalia has imported exceed 13,000 along with 5.5 million
rounds of ammunition.
"Given the size of the Security Forces ... these numbers of weapons exceed
the needs of the current offensive against al Shabaab," the report said.
"They are also additional to weapons sourced locally from stocks already in
the country and weapons that have entered Somalia in violation of the arms
embargo."
A diplomat at Somalia's U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a
request for comment.
Somalia's government last year had asked for the arms embargo to be fully
removed, and the United States supported that. But other Security Council
members were wary of doing that in a country already awash with weapons.
The Security Council imposed the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow
of weapons to feuding warlords, who a year earlier had ousted dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. In 2012, Somalia
held its first vote since 1991 to elect a president and prime minister.
The Security Council requires Somalia's government to report regularly on
the structure of the security forces and the infrastructure and procedures
in place to ensure safe storage, maintenance and distribution of military
equipment.
There is a 17,600-strong African Union peacekeeping force and a U.N.
political mission in the Horn of Africa country. The African Union force
continues to fight al Shabaab. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by
Gunna Dickson)
UNITED NATIONS Oct 11 (Reuters) - Illegal exports of Somali charcoal earned
al Shabaab militants tens of millions of dollars in the past year and also
financed violations of an arms embargo by clan-based militia that could fuel
warlord tensions, U.N. investigators said in a new report.
The Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group, which oversees compliance with U.N.
sanctions on the two countries, said it had counted 161 vessels exporting
charcoal from Somalia's southern ports of Kismayu and Barawe between June
2013 and May 2014.
The U.N. Security Council banned charcoal exports from Somalia in February
2012 in a bid to cut off funds for al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-affiliated group
that has been fighting for control of Somalia for years and enforces strict
sharia law in areas it occupies.
"The total international market value of charcoal exported in 2013 and 2014
can be estimated as upwards of $250 million and could be much more, given
that the Group may not have identified all shipments," the monitors said in
a confidential 482-page annual report, seen by Reuters on Friday.
"The scale of the international trade in Somali charcoal is largely
consistent with its previous findings," it said.
A third of the 161 shipments were in the names of two businessmen linked to
al Shabaab, said the monitoring group, and the cargos were primarily
destined for the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait.
Between June 2013 and January 2014 the group said charcoal was mainly
exported from Kismayu and Barawe and since January shipments were primarily
made from Kismayu where port operations are supervised by the Ras Kamboni
militia and the Kenyan army, which is part of an African Union peacekeeping
force in Somalia.
The Kenyan military has denied allegations by the U.N. monitors that it
aided illegal charcoal exports.
"The Monitoring Group has obtained information that, while businessmen
linked to al Shabaab ... continue to trade in charcoal freely, charcoal
proceeds have also helped to finance the purchase of military vehicles by
Ras Kamboni," it said.
The U.N. Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut
the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who had ousted dictator Mohamed
Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. Somalia held its first
vote since 1991 in 2012 to elect a president and prime minister.
"The import of vehicles, in violation of the arms embargo, is an example of
how the unchecked scramble for charcoal revenue has contributed to the
arming of the environment, which is likely to contribute more to historical
clan tensions relating to the control of Kismayu," the monitors said.
Dozens of people were killed last year when clan leader Barre Hirale's
forces battled for control of Kismayu from Ras Kamboni loyal to Ahmed
Madobe, who was chosen by a regional assembly to preside over the
surrounding Jubbaland region.
Hirale laid down arms and joined reconciliation talks in August.
The U.N. monitors said al Shabaab had shifted most of its exports to Kismayu
earlier this year to "disguise the operations of those traders working most
closely with al Shabaab in Barawe." But this week military strikes drove al
Shabaab out of Barawe, their last major coastal stronghold.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Tom Brown)