Paulo Filgueiras

World News

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UN Security Council Monitoring Group Report on Eritrea

The UN Security Council has released its 116 page Monitoring Group report on Eritrea dated 13 October 2014. The Monitoring Group found no evidence of Eritrean support to al-Shabaab during the reporting period. It did not, however, rule out the possibility that Eritrea may have provided some assistance to elements within al-Shabaab without detection. In any event, Eritrea is a marginal actor in Somalia.

Eritrea continued to violate a UN resolution by importing weapons and ammunition from eastern Sudan on a regular basis and with the knowledge and direction of Eritrean officials affiliated with the President’s Office. The Monitoring Group could not substantiate or confirm allegations made by the government of South Sudan that Eritrea had violated a UN resolution by providing military and logistical support to armed rebel groups in South Sudan.

Eritrean support for regional armed groups continued to be linked primarily to the larger context of Ethiopian-Eritrean rivalry in the Horn of Africa, the unsettled border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the way in which that rivalry shapes Eritrean foreign policy. There is evidence that Eritrea supports the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Tigray People’s Democratic Movement, and Ginbot Seven.

It is the assessment of the Monitoring Group that senior Eritrean officials continue to collect millions of dollars per year through unofficial revenues by means of private business arrangements involving PFDJ-run companies domestically and abroad.