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.

Omar Touray, the president of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, has highlighted the necessity of taking concrete steps to fulfil long-standing international agreements on peace and development.

The ECOWAS Commission made this announcement on Monday as Touray delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York during the Summit of the Future.

Touray praised UN Secretary-General António Guterres for calling the meeting and emphasised its significance during a period when the globe must make critical decisions.

“The timing of the summit is particularly significant coming, as it does, at a time when our world stands at a crossroads,” Touray stated, highlighting the need to choose between a chaotic past and a more just, collaborative future.

He questioned the Pact for the Future’s uniqueness, claiming that many of its promises had already been made public under other UN frameworks.

“The fact that we have come back to the same old commitments suggests that we still need greater political will to deliver on the good promises,” he remarked.

Touray emphasised that for ECOWAS, real implementation is what will determine how meaningful the Pact is.

On matters like youth empowerment, climate justice, sustainable development, and peace and security, he demanded immediate action.

He cautioned against the perils of division and strife, especially in West Africa, and urged leaders to concentrate on promoting regional unity and integration.

“If we fail to deliver once again, history will look back to this summit not as the summit of the future but a Summit of the Past. This is the choice before us,” he added.