(29 July 2011, Addis Ababa, ERTA)--A United Nations report exposes Eritrea’s plan to set off a car bomb at a summit of the African Union in Ethiopia last January.
A report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea says the aim was to disrupt the summit in Addis Ababa, AU head quarter, last January.
The report states that Eritrea’s spies are active in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, posing a threat to regional peace and security. The UN interprets the plot as representing a shift in tactics by the Eritrean intelligence services.
"Whereas Eritrean support to foreign armed opposition groups has in the past been limited to conventional military operations, the plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa in January 2011, which envisaged mass casualty attacks against civilian targets and the strategic use of explosives to create a climate of fear, represents a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics," said the report.
The report unveils Eritrea’s plan to attack the AU headquarters with a car bomb as African leaders took breaks, to blow up Africa's largest market to "kill many people", and attack the area between the prime minister's office and the Sheraton Hotel, where most heads of state stay during AU summits.
"Although ostensibly an OLF operation, it was conceived, planned, supported and directed by the external operations directorate of the government of Eritrea, under the leadership of General Te'ame ", the report said. General Te'ame Goitom, Eritrea's external intelligence operations chief in the horn, allegedly told one of the would-be attackers that the intention was to "make Addis Ababa like Baghdad".
The monitoring group said it had an audio recording of a conversation between Te'ame and the attacker, as well as records of payments made to the bombing team by a senior Eritrean army official.
The Ethiopian Government made it clear earlier that Eritrea had planned to attack the AU meeting held last January, Merkato (big open market place) and other places in Addis Ababa, something which the report substantiates.
Source: ERTA
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