Immediately following U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s stern warning on Thursday that Eritrea should stop supporting al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, Eritrea’s Information Minister, Ali Abdu, told VOA’s Solomon Abate the United States had better stop meddling in Somalia’s affairs.
In response to Secretary Clinton’s warning that the United States may take action against Eritrea, Ali Abdu told VOA “the support of the Eritrean people of the people of Somalia will not cease. In fact, it will be enhanced even farther.” The information minister for Eritrea continued to deny that his government has offered material support to “any faction” in the battle for control of Somalia.
“We have a moral and a political obligation to support all Somali people to reconstitute and reinstitute their country,” he said.
Ali Abdu said it was “astonishing” that the “new administration” of the U.S. government remains involved in the struggle to preserve the Transitional Federal Government of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. “The fact that it failed to learn from the previous administration’s mistakes is unfortunate.” He urged the United States “to leave the Somali people alone to freely determine their own future.”
