Controversial Kenyan Businessman accuses Ethiopia of selling arms to Al-Shabab

Ethiopian peacekeeping forces

Editor’s Note
Jacob Juma, a man widely considered among Kenyans as an infamous and controversial business man, harshly accused the Ethiopian government of selling arms to the Al-Qaida-linked terrorist group in Somalia, Al-Shabab.
“Ethiopia is a suspect” said Juma via twitter “Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata needs to ask African Union & UN to investigate Ethiopia on its secret supply of arms and support to Al-Shabaab” he added.

However, Mr Juma didn’t reveal any evidence to justify his accusations. Interestingly, as soon as he made his tweets available on the net, the news was widely disseminated by regime-friendly Eritrean media outlets.
Sources close to Awramba times disclosed that Mr. Juma is a partner of a Canadian mining company, working with the Eritrean government on Gold exploration sector and it seems obvious for anyone that his mud-muddling campaign was backed by the repressive regime in Eritrea to divert attention and create doubt on Ethiopia’s global image.

The accusation is unbecoming to a defiant nation who had a leading role of eradicating terrorist groups and their allies in the Horn of Africa, for nearly a decade. Ethiopia has been praised by the AU, EU, and UN for good performance of tackling terrorism both at home and globally.
Based on the findings recently documented by the US government and the United Nations, some diplomats close to the Kenyan Embassy claims Juma might have mistaken Ethiopia for Ertitrea as this accusation very well fits Eritrea. The U.S state department on December 2013 said Eritrea is supporting Somalia’s militant group, Al Shabab.

US State Department affirmed that Eritrean officials were in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region to give training and other mechanical support to Al Shabab fighters in Somalia, battling against the Federal Government forces and the African Union troops (AMISOM).

On the other hand Security Council specifically asked Eritrea to refrain from “harboring, financing, facilitating, supporting, organizing, training, or inciting individuals or groups to perpetrate acts of violence or terrorist acts against other States or their citizens in the region”

Jacob Juma

Where had Mr. Juma been when all those reports came out? Had this bankrupt businessman [according to media reports] put his fingers on his computer keyboard to tweet the same accusation against Eritrea, despite loads of evidence?

If investigation is said to be imminent, President Uhuru Kenyata should be the first person to be investigated for ignoring a travel warning issued by the governments of Australia and UK of an imminent attack in Kenya’s Garissa town, ahead of the deadly attack on Garissa University.

On the contrary, when the US Embassy in Addis Ababa announce a travel warning on October 14, 2014 of an imminent terrorist attack in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government went ahead of detecting the terrorists and brought them to justice, a week after the alert came out. This is the way any government works to protect its citizens.

Source:  awrambatimes.com