Tuesday January 22, 2019
Startling revelations indicate that United Nations observation last November that Somali government arms were being transferred to rebel group has been found true, sources said Monday.
Kenya police have confirmed that three out of the five guns used in last week’s terrorist attacks on a Nairobi hotel were initially bought by the Federal Government of Somalia, Kenya’s Daily Nation reported Monday.The sources said a preliminary ballistic examination of the guns showed that their serial number markings, although partially erased, were similar to the ones used by the Somali security forces, Kenya’s Daily Nation quoted police sources.
The source of two other guns used by the terrorists is yet to be identified.
Every government has a unique identification code on its weapons, and the guns recovered at 14 Riverside Drive bore the initials ‘SO’, usually used by the Somalia National Army (SNA), the report said.
The report recalled that the United Nations Security Council in November last year warned that military equipment purchased by the Somali Federal Government was being diverted to the armouries of rebel movements.
The arms, the UN continued, included many from a consignment received in mid-2017.
They are now believed to be in the possession of arms dealers in Mogadishu and Baidoa.
“Many such weapons were likely diverted piecemeal by unpaid members of the Somali security forces,” the UN cautioned.
The AK-47 rifles found at the 14 Riverside Complex are believed to have been ferried into the country by an unidentified woman, but Kenyan security agencies are yet to arrive at the exact dates when that happened.