Iranian arms being smuggled from Yemen into Somalia: Report

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Small arms and light weapons supplied by Iran to Houthi rebels for use in Yemen's civil war are being smuggled to Somalia through the Puntland entry point, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said in a study released Wednesday

"Over the course of eight months, @GI_TOC research documented over 400 illicit weapons in 13 locations across Somalia, the presence of which serves as a fingerprint of the spillover of the arms from the Yemen conflict into Somalia," said the report.

GI-TOC said it has established for the first time that weapons originating in the Iran-Yemen arms trade are being trafficked into Somalia.

"The majority of Type 56-1 rifles documented in this study were found in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia which has historically functioned as the gateway for illicit weapons into the country," according to the study.

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said it documented Type 56-1 rifles as far south as Dolow in Somalia, a town bordering Ethiopia.