Illegal arms continue to fuel factional fighting

As the death toll in the factional fighting in Mogadishu mounts, lethal weapons continue to flood into Somalia, despite a 15-year arms embargo imposed by the United Nations. With at least 130 dead in the latest fighting in the Somali capital, a United Nations report on Wednesday revealed that arms and other military material flow into Somalia "like a river".

In its latest report to the UN Security Council, the Monitoring Group on Somalia, which was set up to investigate the UN arms embargo, blamed the flow of weapons on a "widening circle of states - each with its own agenda - arms trading groups and economically powerful individuals, and the business elite."

The committee found that Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Mogadishu-based opposition alliance, Islamist groups, the business elite, pirate groups and feuding sub-clans continued to receive weaponry, material and financial support in spite of the embargo.

The report said Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Yemen provided military equipment and supplies to the Somali warring groups during the later part of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. Eritrea and Ethiopia were accused of supplying arms, ammunition and other military equipment to different groups, while Djibouti and Yemen are said to have provided military uniforms and vehicles to the TFG.

In letters to the committee, the governments of Djibouti, Eritrea, Italy and Saudi Arabia have denied violating the Somali arms embargo.

On Wednesday, the Security Council voted unanimously to extend the monitoring group's mandate and called on all UN member states, particularly those in the region, to strictly abide by the arms embargo and "take all necessary steps to hold violators accountable." It also urged Somali leaders to continue political dialogue and refrain from violence.

Somalia has had no effective government since the collapse of the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991 and ensuing civil war, in which various factions and warlords fought for power. The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia - sponsored two years of talks between the various Somali clans and factions, culminating in the establishment of the TFG in October 2004. According to the monitoring group, the current standoff between the TFG and the Mogadishu-based opposition has mutated to include a powerful militant fundamentalist element.