Ten nations and Hezbollah have been supplying weapons to groups fighting for control of Somalia, violating an international arms embargo, according to a UN commission report. The panel, charged with monitoring the arms embargo on Somalia, said Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Uganda all had supported armed groups inside Somalia. One section of the report said that the Islamists sent more than 700 Somalis to Lebanon to fight alongside Hezbollah in its war with Israel over the summer.
Both the interim Somalian government, which is backed by Ethiopia, and the Islamic Courts militia, backed by Eritrea, have been preparing for an all-out war for control of Somalia, the report concluded. Mediators from East Africa and the Arab League have been working frantically to reach some kind of peace deal, but so far without success.
The authors of the report called on the international community to closely monitor Somalia's coastline and land borders to intercept suspected arms shipments. The Security Council resolution that imposed the embargo does not authorize any methods to enforce it.
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