Eritrea throws out accusation being “exporting chaos”

Be Tesfa-alem Tekle

November 1. 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — Eritrea has dismissed an accusation by neighboring Djibouti of becoming a destabilizing factor to the fragile peace and stability of the Horn of Africa region by supporting Militias with suspected links to al Qaeda.

Last week Djibouti’s foreign minister Mahmoud Ali Youssef accused the red sea nation of being “chaos exporting” and spreading nation by arming supporting and training militias.

However Eritrea’s Information Minister, Ali Abdu this week rejected the latest accusation saying that his country Eritrea would not be drawn into another war of words with Djibouti.

“We do not wish to be involved in this childish public acrimony,” Ali Abdu told Reuters on Thursday adding “We are not ready to be engaged in infantile arguments with Djibouti.”

Eritrea has repeatedly denied such accusations in the past. It rather has accused other horn of Africa countries of being the destabilizing factors to the languishing peace in Somalia and to the region as a whole.

The Djiboutian foreign minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssef’s, accusation comes after he held talks with Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa last week in Cairo.

“Eritrea is exporting chaos. Exporting chaos has become routine in Eritrea,” “They have started training militias and arming them to carry out sabotage in Djibouti, just as they support elements in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia,” he added.

Relations of the two tiny neighbors remain at odds following a clash in June last year and a dozen Djiboutian soldiers were killed after Djibouti accused Eritrea of moving troops across its border, something Asmara denies.

(ST)