Guns supplied by Iran to its Houthi allies in Yemen are being smuggled across the Gulf of Aden to Somalia, according to a Geneva-based think tank, where al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab insurgents are battling a weak and divided government…
The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said its study drew on data from more than 400 weapons documented in 13 locations across Somalia over eight months and inventories from 13 dhows intercepted by naval vessels.
GI-TOC said it has established for the first time that weapons originating in the Iran-Yemen arms trade are being trafficked into Somalia.
“The majority of Type 56-1 rifles documented in this study were found in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia which has historically functioned as the gateway for illicit weapons into the country,” according to the study, The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said it documented Type 56-1 rifles as far south as Dolow in Somalia, a town bordering Ethiopia.
“Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the trafficking of arms to the Houthis. However, a preponderance of evidence points to Iranian state supply.”
It is the first publicly available research into the scale of illicit arms smuggling from Yemen into the Horn of Africa country.”Weapons originating in the Iran–Yemen arms trade are being trafficked onward into Somalia itself,” said the study, which is due to be published on Wednesday.
“Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the trafficking of arms to the Houthis. However, a preponderance of evidence points to Iranian state supply.”
Iran’s foreign ministry and a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi forces did not respond to a request for comment on the study. Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the trafficking of arms to its Houthi allies in Yemen, where the six-year-old civil war has killed tens of thousands.The Somali government spokesman and the internal security minister did not return calls or messages seeking comment.
