A diplomatic tussle between the Federal Government of Somalia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) triggered by the seizure of close to 10 million dollars on an Emirati plane. “The decision,” UAE said, “Comes in response to Somali security forces’ seizure of a UAE-registered civil aircraft at Mogadishu Airport and confiscation of money destined to pay the soldiers.”
Towards the last week, Somalia terminated her military agreement with UAE which spurred the decision by the Emirati government to disband the military training programme in Somalia which began in 2014.
A lot of speculations have been floating around about the actual decision of the confiscate millions seeing as the UAE officials were being cagey. With some security officials accusing UAE of funding of al Shabaab terror organization affiliated to al Qaeda.
The cutting of funding is a big blow to the military in Somalia and Puntland seeing as the agreement guaranteed the salaries of over 2000 soldiers. The tussle comes as nations scramble to establish bases and relations with Somalia to aid in the fight against the al Shabaab terror organization.
