Eritrea Pays Warlord To Influence Somalia

[Homunculus]

Abdi Waal has admitted in closed-door meetings that he is acting as an agent for the Eritrean government

(Reuters) - Eritrea is undermining stability in conflict-ravaged Somalia by paying political agents and a warlord linked to Islamist militants to influence the Mogadishu government, U.N. sanctions experts said in a confidential report.

The Eritrean government has long denied playing any negative role in Somalia, saying it has no links to Islamist al Shabaab militants fighting to overthrow the Somali government. It says the U.N. sanctions imposed on it in 2009 for supporting al Shabaab were based on lies and has called for the sanctions to be lifted.

The latest annual report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea to the Security Council's Somalia/Eritrea sanctions committee casts fresh doubt on Asmara's denials, undermining its case for lifting the sanctions against it.

"The Monitoring Group has received numerous reports about the warming of relations between Asmara and Mogadishu, and has obtained evidence of Asmara's control of political agents close to the Somali presidency and some of the individual spoilers," the group said in the report, seen by Reuters.

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