Eritrea to face US wrath if it continues arming Somali terrorists

Two senior Obama administration officials have warned that Eritrea could face severe punishment if it does not halt its alleged arms shipments to an Islamist terrorist group in Somalia.Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that the Obama team is “deeply concerned and very frustrated” with Eritrea’s support for Al Shabaab fighters who are trying to overthrow the Somali government. “It is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it, nor will other members of the Security Council,” Ms Rice told the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. Her comments were echoed a day later by Johnnie Carson, the State Department’s top Africa official. Briefing reporters on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s seven-nation tour of Africa this week, Mr Carson accused Eritrean leaders of acting as “spoilers” in Somalia, adding, “Time is running out on Eritrea.”Mrs Clinton will hold talks in Nairobi with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed while she is attending the 8th African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum. And Mr Carson underscored America’s determination to prevent the fall of the government that President Ahmed heads.
The Assistant Secretary of State told reporters that the Obama administration is willing to provide more military aid on top of the 40 tonnes of weapons that the US revealed last month it had supplied President Ahmed’s forces.Ms Rice indicated that the US will seek the backing of the UN and African organisations for sanctions against Eritrea if it does not signal a change in its behaviour regarding Somalia. “I can assure you that we will be taking appropriate steps with partners in Africa and the Security Council,” she said.The Bush administration said in 2007 that it was considering designating Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism. Such a move would result in imposition of unilateral US sanctions against Eritrea.Ms Rice and Mr Carson did not mention that option last week. And it emerged separately that the US may soon remove Sudan from the list of countries that Washington accuses of supporting terrorism.President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it is only a matter of time before the US “unwinds” the terrorism-related sanctions it originally levied against Sudan in 1993. “There is no evidence in our intelligence committee that supports [Sudan] being on our state sponsors of terrorism list,” ambassador Scott Gration said. Sudan’s removal would leave only Cuba, Iran and Syria on Washington’s roster of pariah regimes.The apparent shift in US policy stems in part from the view that Sudan’s government is no longer engaged in the genocide that Washington has previously insisted was occurring in Darfur. Mr Gration said last month that what is now evident in Darfur are “the remnants of genocide.” And last week he told US senators that the situation in Darfur is “getting significantly better.”Only 16 violent deaths had been recorded in the region in the past month, with 12 of them linked to crime, Mr Gration said.
But that positive assessment contradicts the views of other officials in the Obama administration and rankles human rights groups that have long been campaigning for a stronger US stance on Darfur. UN ambassador Rice, for example, said recently that the United States believes genocide is taking place in Darfur. Mr Gration acknowledged last week that his interpretation differs from Ms Rice’s, and he characterised their open disagreement as part of “an honest debate” inside the Obama administration.Secretary of State Clinton will most likely be pressed to clarify US policy on Sudan during her Africa safari that begins in Kenya on Tuesday. Ms Clinton then flies to South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde. She is expected to reiterate the Africa self-help theme sounded by President Obama during his visit to Ghana last month.