Monday, September 29, 2008

Somalia: Tanks, but no tanks...

Confirmation that the tanks on the MV Faina were indeed headed for Sudan - not Kenya.

A US Navy spokesman says a weapons shipment on a Ukrainian ship hijacked by Somalian pirates was headed to unknown buyers in Sudan, not Kenya.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a deputy spokesman for the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain, says it is not known whom exactly in Sudan the weapons were meant for. A 5th Fleet statement said the ship was headed for the Kenyan port of Mombassa, but added "additional reports state the cargo was intended for Sudan."

Kenya has said that the shipment, which includes T-72 battle tanks, was intended for it.

The UN has imposed an arms embargo on weapons headed to Sudan's Darfur conflict zone. But the ban does not cover other weapons sales to the Khartoum government or the southern Sudan's autonomous government.

Kenya denies this, of course.