DOHA (Somaliguardian) – Somalia has signed arms deal with Qatar following secret talks in Doha over the past days, as tensions continue to simmer in the Horn of Africa nation over delayed elections, with only two weeks to go before the incumbent president’s term expires.
Somali Intelligence Chief Fahad Yasin, who had been visiting Doha over the past days, signed a new arms deal with Qatar’s government.
The agreement was initially reported on Tuesday by Mogadishu-based journalist Ali Adan Moumin and has been later confirmed by at least two sources within Somalia’s government, who have spoken to Somaliguardian.
The deal requires Qatar’s government to immediately supply weapons including thousands of pistols to Somali undercover security agents, who have recently completed training.
There had been reports last year that Somalia sent more than 10,000 youths to Eritrea for military and intelligence and security trainings, some of whom were reportedly deployed as cannon fodder in Ethiopia’s Tigray war after graduating from military schools.
The pistols and the other weapons will be used to arm undercover intelligence agents who are scheduled to arrive in Mogadishu within days.
Opposition officials who spoke to Somaliguardian raised fear that the weapons might be used to silence critics of the incumbent president, whose term expires within two weeks with no election still insight amid heated dispute between the federal government and some of the country’s regional states.
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