MOGADISHU, April 25 (Reuters) – At least 600 weapons were stolen in the past week from a former United Arab Emirates-run training centre in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and are for sale in the city, weapons dealers said on Wednesday.
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 programme 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.
The UAE-trained troops began stealing weapons from the
facility shortly after the programme was disbanded, the dealers
said. The soldiers sold guns directly to the dealers and
indirectly via their brokers.
The looting appears to have occurred while the UAE was in
the process of emptying its training centre.
On Sunday night a ship docked at Mogadishu’s port was loaded
with equipment from the UAE’s training centre, including several
dozen shipping containers of weapons, dozens of armoured
vehicles fixed with anti-aircraft guns and hundreds of cars, a
port staff member told Reuters.
On Monday, gunfire broke out at the former training centre
where some of the troops were still camped out, and UAE-trained
troops who were still there fled with as many weapons as they
could, before a rival group took over the facility.
Residents in the area told Reuters they saw UAE-trained
forces discarding their military uniforms and fleeing the
facility in three-wheeled rickshaws with guns in their laps.
After 90 minutes of sporadic gunfire, the facility was
secured by presidential palace guards, a Reuters journalist at
the scene said.
UAE officials did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
Officials from Somalia’s defence ministry did not
immediately answer phone calls requesting comment on the weapons
theft. Defence Minister Mohamed Mursal resigned this week to
contest for the vacant position of parliament speaker.
Army commander General Abdiweli Jama Gorod said on Monday
that some soldiers who were behind the attempted theft of
equipment from the facility had been arrested.
“The Somali national forces now have in hand the few
soldiers and officers who were behind today’s incident and we
assure we shall bring them before justice,” he said in comments
reported by the state-run Somalia News Agency.
Gorod did not answer phone calls on Wednesday afternoon
seeking comment.
Due to the diplomatic dispute, the UAE-trained troops are
being called “rebels” by some elements of the army, a security
analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
The dealers showed Reuters five weapons they said they
bought from the soldiers. They all bore the marking “SO XDS”,
indicating that they belonged to the Somali army.
An arms expert said this was consistent with the previous
arrangement between the two countries.
“The weapons belonged to the SNA, which distributed them to
the UAE training centre. So they are marked SO XDS,” he said.
“About 600 to 700 AK-47 and (other) guns were looted from
the former UAE training camps,” weapons dealer Jama Ali told
Reuters, speaking from a home in Mogadishu where he and two
other men presented the weapons.
Ali said they purchased the weapons for $700, a significant
discount on the current price of $1,350 in Mogadishu for a new
Kalashnikov. The dealers then began last night reselling the
weapons at $1,000 each, he said.
“The best day for business is when there is government
infighting,” said Hassan Abuja, another dealer. “Prices of
weapons and ammunition go up.”
