Somalia has accused Ethiopia of smuggling weapons, fearing Islamist extremists might use them.

A day after an Egyptian vessel in Mogadishu unloaded heavy weapons, the neighbours exchanged insults. This was the second shipment since a security accord in August.

Ethiopia, which has hundreds of troops fighting al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Somalia, has clashed with the Mogadishu administration over building a port in Somaliland in exchange for sovereignty recognition. Somalia has grown closer to Egypt, which has been at odds with Ethiopia over its construction of a massive hydro dam on the Nile River for years.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Taye Atske Selassie worried “external forces would further exacerbate the fragile security and would end up in the hands of terrorists in Somalia,” Ethiopia News Agency reported.

The Somali Foreign Minister told journalists: “Ethiopia’s motivation behind these defamatory statements is its attempt to conceal the illegal smuggling of weapons across the Somali borders, which are falling into the hands of civilians and terrorists.”

He said Ethiopia sought to distract from Somalia’s sovereignty transgressions but provided no evidence. Somalia accused Ethiopia of supplying Puntland with weaponry last week.

Somalia threatens to evacuate Ethiopian troops by year’s end if the port contract is not annulled.

Somalia’s three-decade arms embargo was removed in December by the UNSC.

Rashid Abdi, a Sahan Research researcher, warned al Shabaab terrorists may misuse weaponry. “Al Shabaab is a major beneficiary and in 2023 harvested massive quantities of weapons by conducting raids on enemy (bases),” stated.

According to port and military officials on Monday, an Egyptian cruiser has sent a second significant cache of weapons, including artillery and anti-aircraft guns, to Somalia. This development is expected to increase tensions between Ethiopia and the two countries.

Due to their mutual suspicion of Ethiopia, Egypt and Somalia have strengthened their ties this year. As a result, Cairo has sent multiple planeloads of weapons to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, following the signing of a cooperative security agreement in August.

By entering into a tentative agreement in January to lease land for a port in exchange for the potential recognition of Somaliland’s independence from Somalia, Ethiopia infuriated Mogadishu. Egypt has denounced the Somaliland agreement. Egypt and Ethiopia have conflicted for years over Addis Ababa’s development of a massive hydro project on the Nile River’s headwaters.

According to a diplomat, the Egyptian warship started unloading the weaponry on Sunday. According to two port employees and two military officials who spoke to Reuters, security personnel closed off the quayside and adjacent roads on Sunday and Monday while convoys transported the weapons to a building housing the defence ministry and neighbouring military outposts.

An official working for Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, Nasra Bashir Ali, shared a picture of Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur observing the ship’s unloading on her X account.

Requests for comment from Egyptian officials were met with a delay or a refusal to comment.

Due to the security situation in the area, Egypt’s embassy in Mogadishu issued a warning to its people on Sunday, according to Egyptian media.

While an estimated 5,000–7,000 troops are stationed in other regions by a bilateral arrangement, Ethiopia maintains a minimum of 3,000 soldiers in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission (ATMIS) battling Islamist terrorists.

Declaring that the agreement on Somaliland is an attack on its sovereignty, Somalia demands that all Ethiopian forces withdraw by year’s end, barring Addis Ababa from abandoning the arrangement.

The African Union reported in July that Egypt had offered to send troops to a new peacekeeping operation in Somalia, though Cairo has not made a public statement on the subject.

The Ethiopian government has stated in the past that it cannot remain silent while “other actors” take action to destabilise the region, but it did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.