SANAA - The Yemeni government admitted on Monday that it sent weapons to Somalia earlier this year to help the country’s interim government consolidate its grip on power and restore stability.
“Yemen has supplied the legitimate government in Somalia with personal arms in support of police forces that are being prepared and equipped to strengthen the elected government’s capacities to boost the security and stability of the country,” a Yemeni official source said in a statement carried by state media.
The Yemeni official was reacting to a report by a UN panel of experts monitoring a weapons embargo on Somalia, in which they listed Yemen, Ethiopia and Eritrea as violators of the ban imposed in 1992.
Yemen’s delivery of weapons to the Somali government also aimed at ”consolidating the grip of the legitimate authority to help it fight terrorist elements who constitute a threat to the security and stability of the Horn of Africa,” according to the statement.
The unnamed official said the Yemeni arms supplies to Somalia ”received endorsement from concerned international bodies”.
The UN report said the Yemeni shipments included 5,000 firearms and 15,000 military uniforms.
“Using military aircraft Antonov 26 to transport arms shipments from Aden, Yemen, to Bossaso, Somalia, in direct state support for TFG (parliament) and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the Yemeni Air Force delivered arms on eight occasions between 2 and 10 July 2005,” said the 60-page report.