Eritrea planned massive bomb attack on African Union summit, UN says

Eritrea planned massive bomb attack on African Union summit, UN says

Baghdad-style' car bomb attack planned in Addis Ababa, capital of neighbour and foe Ethiopia, which hosted 30 heads of state in January

By Xan Rice

Eritrea planned a massive attack on an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January this year that was designed to "make Addis Ababa like Baghdad", according to a new UN report.

At the time, Ethiopia claimed it had foiled the large bomb plot by its tiny neighbour and foe, the latest in a series of accusations and counter-accusations by the two governments. Now an investigation by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea suggests that the plot was genuine, and says it represented "a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics" in the Horn of Africa.

According to the report, Eritrean intelligence services planned an operation to detonate a car bomb at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa at the end of January this year, when 30 of the continent's leaders were meeting there. Separate bombs were to be placed between the Ethiopian prime minister's office and the Sheraton Hotel, where most of the heads of state were staying, as well as in the giant Merkato open-air market in the hope of "kill(ing) many people".

"If executed as planned, the operation would almost certainly have caused mass civilian casualties, damaged the Ethiopian economy and disrupted the African Union summit," the report said.

The planned attack indicates the increasingly dangerous and very personal level of animosity between the Horn of Africa neighbours.

Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi and Eritrean president Isiais Afewerki were allies during their respective liberation struggles, but relations deteriorated soon after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993. War erupted over a border dispute in 1998, ending two years later at a cost of tens of thousands of lives.

An international boundary commission later found in favour of Eritrea, but Ethiopia refused to accept the ruling. While Afewerki had legitimate cause for anger – many independent observers have criticised Ethiopia's intransigence over the border disagreement – his decision to wage proxy wars by funding rebel groups in neighbouring countries has made Eritrea a regional and international pariah.

One of the Asmara-sponsored rebel groups is the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in Ethiopia, according to the monitoring group. It said that OLF members were recruited by Eritrea as far back as 2008 and given training in preparation for the planned attack on Addis Ababa.

"Although ostensibly an OLF operation, it was conceived, planned, supported and directed by the external operations directorate of the government of Eritrea, under the leadership of General Te'ame", the report said.

General Te'ame Goitom, Eritrea's external intelligence operations chief in the horn, allegedly told one of the would-be attackers that the intention was to "make Addis Ababa like Baghdad". The monitoring group said it had an audio recording of a conversation between Te'ame and the attacker, as well as records of payments made to the bombing team by a senior Eritrean army official.

In foiling the plot, Ethiopian security officials seized plastic explosives, gas cylinders, detonators and a sniper's rifle.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied funding foreign rebel groups, including the al-Shabab Islamist militia in Somalia. Afewerki's government has not yet commented on the UN report, which concluded that his government's geopolitical strategy was "no longer proportional or rational".

"Moreover, since the Eritrean intelligence apparatus responsible for the African Union summit plot is also active in Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda, the level of threat it poses to these other countries must be re-evaluated," the report said.

(Source: The Guardian)

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Exclusive: Eritrea behind AU summit attack plot, U.N. says

By David Clarke

(Reuters) - Eritrea was behind a plot to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and is bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Somali rebels through its embassy in Kenya, according to a U.N. report.

A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea said the Red Sea state's intelligence personnel were active in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, and that the country's actions posed a threat to security and peace in the region.

"Whereas Eritrean support to foreign armed opposition groups has in the past been limited to conventional military operations, the plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa in January 2011, which envisaged mass casualty attacks against civilian targets and the strategic use of explosives to create a climate of fear, represents a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics," the report obtained by Reuters said.

The plan was to attack the AU headquarters with a car bomb as African leaders took breaks, to blow up Africa's largest market to "kill many people" and attack the area between the Prime Minister's office and the Sheraton Hotel -- where most heads of state stay during AU summits.

The U.N. said while past Eritrean support for rebel groups in both Somalia and Ethiopia had to be seen in the context of an unresolved border dispute with Addis Ababa, the new approach was a threat to the whole of the Horn and east Africa.

"The fact that the same Eritrean officers responsible for the planning and direction of this operation are also involved, both in supervisory and operational roles, in external operations in Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Sudan implies an enhanced level of threat to the region as a whole."

Asmara has repeatedly denied any involvement in funding rebel groups in the region. In June, it rejected claims it had anything to do with the Addis Ababa bomb plot as "nonsensical remarks" with no legal basis.

No official comment was immediately available from the Eritrea government on the U.N. report.

The U.N. has slapped an arms embargo on the Red Sea state, as well as a travel ban and an assets freeze on Eritrean political and military leaders who it says are violating an arms embargo on Somalia.

"MAKE ADDIS ABABA LIKE BAGHDAD"

Ethiopian intelligence officials uncovered the plot to set off multiple bombs in Addis Ababa at the AU summit, an event typically attended by more than 30 African leaders, in January this year.

The U.N. report said all but one of the people arrested received all their training and orders directly from Eritrean officers. The other detainee was also in regular contact with an Ethiopian rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

"Although ostensibly an OLF operation, it was conceived, planned, supported and directed by the external operations directorate of the Government of Eritrea, under the leadership of General Te'ame," the report said.

The equipment seized included C4 plastic explosives in food sacks, gas cylinders, detonators and a sniper rifle.

General Te'ame told one of the plotters that the plan was to make "Addis Ababa like Baghdad," according to the report.

However, in an interview with U.N. investigators, one of the men arrested, Omar Idriss Mohamed, said the aim was not to kill African leaders but to show them that Ethiopia was not safe.

"By so doing, some people may start to listen to what Eritrea is saying about Ethiopia. Some Arab States will be sympathetic to this view," he was quoted as saying.

According to the U.N. report, Omar is an OLF member who was approached by the Eritrean security services though Colonel Gemachew. Omar, who visited Eritrea in 2009 and 2010, became the Addis team leader for the plot.

The U.N. report included a letter from Romania confirming a sniper rifle found in the possession of one of the bomb plotters had been sold to Eritrea in 2004.

The report included slips showing payments to the plotters in Addis Ababa through money transfers. The plotters told the U.N. that an Eritrean colonel had arranged for the transfers via intermediaries in Sudan and Kenya.

Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting rebel groups. In a shift of policy, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declared in April it would support Eritrean guerrillas fighting to overthrow President Isaias Afewerki.

The report also included copies of payments slips from Eritrean officials in Kenya's capital Nairobi to known members of Somali rebel group al Shabaab. It said the payments were to the tune of $80,000 a month.

"The Monitoring Group has obtained documentary evidence of Eritrean payments to a number of individuals with links to al Shabaab," the report said.

"The documents obtained were received directly from the embassy of Eritrea in Nairobi, including payment vouchers marked 'State of Eritrea'," the report said.

"The embassy of Eritrea in Nairobi continues to maintain and exploit a wide network of Somali contacts, intelligence assets and agents of influence in Kenya."

(Source: Reuters)

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Updated: Eritrea accused of planning terrorist attacks on its neighbours

Eritrea was on Thursday night accused of plotting coordinated car-bombs designed to cause ‘mass civilian casualties’ during an international conference in its neighbour and enemy Ethiopia in January.

By Mike Pflanz

The tiny Red Sea state is also allegedly bankrolling Somalia’s pro-al-Qa’eda Islamists and using British bank accounts to fund an increase in clandestine aggression across East Africa.

The claims were made in a new United Nations report released on Thursday night that went on to warn of a rising threat of “large scale” terror attacks in Kenya and elsewhere in East Africa from freshly-recruited jiahdists.

Three years of planning went into the plot to detonate a series of bombs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, during an African Union summit in January. It was foiled by security forces.

Ethiopian rebels were blamed, but the plan was “conceived, planned, supported and directed by the external operations directorate of the Government of Eritrea”, said the report, from the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.

The anticipated mass civilian casualties and use of explosives to spread terror “represent a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics”, the report’s authors said.

Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 but the two countries soon plunged back to war. It has supported any armed group which opposes Ethiopia’s government.

Proxy conflicts between the two enemies spread most recently to Somalia, where Ethiopia is the main regional backer of the internationally-recognised administration in Mogadishu.

Eritrea is now sending an average of GBP50,000 a month from its embassy in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to agents of al-Shabaab, al-Qa’eda-linked insurgents battling Somalia’s government, the UN report said.

That money is transferred from Dubai, where there are significant investments and deposits of Eritrean government funds.

Because his country exports almost nothing, President Isaias Afewerki taxes the 1.2 million Eritreans living abroad two percent of their income.

These funds were “the most significant source of revenue” for the ruling party, the UN report said.

One of the main routes for this diaspora cash is through Ericommerce, a British-based firm which banks with Natwest and which handles procurement for Eritrea’s state-owned food import company.

Through its diaspora tax, the report said, “the Government of Eritrea is estimated to raise tens — and possibly hundreds — of millions of dollars on an annual basis”.

Some of that money is believed to end up being transferred via Dubai and Nairobi to pay al-Shabaab in Somalia.

“The means by which the leadership in Asmara [Eritrea’s capital] apparently intends to pursue its objectives are no longer proportional or rational,” the report stated.

“Moreover, since the Eritrean intelligence apparatus responsible for the African Union summit plot is also active in Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda, the level of threat it poses to these other countries must be re-evaluated.”

Attempts to reach Eritrea’s government spokesman were unsuccessful on Thursday night.

The report’s authors separately found fresh evidence that al-Shabaab was extending its reach into Kenya, and had made “functional linkages with jihadist groups in northern, western and southern Africa”.

Leaders of a Muslim youth centre in Nairobi were found to have links to the al-Shabaab cell which killed 79 people in coordinated bombs in Uganda during the World Cup final last year.

The same people were now helping send radicalised Kenyans to fight for the Islamists in Somalia, where there was now a Kenyan-staffed militia of between 200 and 500 troops preparing for more attacks outside of Somalia.

“This disturbing trend, highlighted by the Kampala bombings, suggests that Al-Shabaab…is giving rise to a new generation of East African jihadist groups that represent a new security challenge for the region and the wider international community,” the report said.

The UN Monitoring Group was established to investigate violations of international arms embargoes in place on both Somalia and Eritrea.

(Source: The Telegraph)

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UN panel: Armed groups threaten Somalia, Eritrea

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Somalia and Eritrea are being used by foreign armed groups that represent "a grave and increasingly urgent threat to peace and security" in the Horn of Africa and East Africa, a U.N. panel said in a report circulated Thursday.

The 471-page report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against the two countries said Somalia's dominant militant group al-Shabab controls the greater part of southern Somalia mainly because of the transitional government's "lack of vision or cohesion, its endemic corruption and its failure to advance the political process."

Although Al-Shabab lacks political support and faces political divisions and military limitations, the experts said, it is able to exert control because of its economic strength.

The Monitoring Group estimated that al-Shabab currently generates between $70 million and $100 million annually from taxation and extortion in areas it controls, notably from the export of charcoal and cross-border contraband into neighboring Kenya.

"Al-Shabab's core leaders have also responded to domestic difficulties by seeking to align themselves more closely with foreign jihadist entities and to provide a platform for like-minded groups in the region," the report said.

Last July's bombings in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that killed 76 people were the first successful al-Shabab operation outside Somalia. Al-Shabab said the bombings were retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu.

The U.N. experts said the Kampala bombings "signaled a new and alarming trend, in which East African extremist groups inspired and mentored by al-Shabab, including the Muslim Youth Center in Kenya, might represent the next generation of extremist threats in East Africa and the wider region."

The report said neighboring Eritrea's continuing relationship with Al-Shabab "appears designed to legitimize and embolden the group rather than to curb its extremist orientation or encourage its participation in a political process."

"Moreover, Eritrean involvement in Somalia reflects a broader pattern of intelligence and special operations activity, including training, financial and logistical support to armed opposition groups in Djibouti, Ethiopia, the Sudan and possibly Uganda," it said.

The panel said such support is a violation of U.N. sanctions including an arms embargo imposed against Eritrea in 2009 for supplying weapons to Islamic insurgents opposed to the Somali government and refusing to resolve a border dispute with neighboring Djibouti.

Eritrea's support for these armed groups should be understood not only in the context of the country's unresolved border dispute with Ethiopia, but as a result of the "systematic subversion" of the government by a relatively small number of political, military and intelligence officials who engage in illicit activities including people smuggling, arms trafficking, money-laundering and extortion.

The Monitoring Group said it concluded that the Eritrean leadership committed multiple sanctions violations.

"Most significantly, in January 2011, the government of Eritrea conceived, planned, organized and directed a failed plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa by bombing a variety of civilian and governmental targets," it said.

While many Eritreans may harbor legitimate grievances at Ethiopia for refusing to implement the boundary decision that ended their 1998-2000 border war, the expert panel said the means Eritrea's leaders apparently intend to use to pursue their objections "are no longer proportional or rational."

"Moreover, since the Eritrean intelligence apparatus responsible for the African Union summit plot is also active in Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda, the level of threat it poses to these other countries must be re-evaluated," it said.

The panel said leaders in Somalia and Eritrea often depend more heavily on political and economic support from foreign governments and their own diasporas than from their local populations.

"And both countries _ in very different ways _ serve as platforms for foreign armed groups that represent a grave and increasingly urgent threat to peace and security in the Horn and East Africa region," it said.

Telephone calls to Eritrea's U.N. Mission and Somalia's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not answered.   

(Source: Associated Press)