Somalia: Australian Navy seized over 2 000 small arms, rocket propelled grenades heading to Mogadishu

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) warship HMAS Darwin has seized over 2 000 small arms, rocket propelled grenades and mortars from a fishing vessel off Oman, and believed to be on its way to Somalia. The Royal Australian Navy on Monday said the HMAS Darwin intercepted a fishing vessel approximately 170 nautical miles (313 kilometres) off the coast of Oman to conduct a flag verification boarding. “After assessing the vessel to be stateless, 1 989 AK-47 assault rifles, 100 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 49 PKM general purpose machine guns, 39 PKM spare barrels and 20 60 mm mortar tubes were seized from the vessel that was headed towards the Somalia coast,” the RAN said. 

The weapons were seized under United Nations sanctions which authorise interdiction on the high seas of illicit weapons destined for Somalia. The United Nations has a decades-long arms embargo in place against Somalia, which has been mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991. In 2013, the U.N Security Council eased some of the embargo restrictions, allowing the Western-backed government in Mogadishu to buy light weapons to bolster its armed forces in the battle against Islamist al Shabaab insurgents, who are aligned with al Qaeda, Reuters reports.

Vice Admiral David Johnston, Chief of Joint Operations, said the seizure on Darwin’s first patrol of such a large haul of illicit weapons is highly significant. "Australia worked as part of the multinational Combined Maritime Forces to discover and seize these illegal weapons. One of the key reasons HMAS Darwin is deployed to the region is to contribute to global security and counter international terrorism," Vice Admiral Johnston said.