Illegal Arms Still Flow Freely Into Somalia

Weapons are still pouring into Somalia at “a brisk and alarming rate” despite a 1992 U.N. arms embargo, threatening efforts to install a new national government, U.N. monitors reported Monday.

Despite rising prices, individuals from both the transitional federal government and opposition groups are buying up the illegal weapons, according to the latest report from the monitoring group.

The group recommended tightening controls along Somalia’s borders and coastline.

Somalia, a lawless Horn of Africa country of about 10 million people, has been carved up into fiefdoms run by rival warlords since 1991. A transitional federal government was formed in neighboring Kenya last year and is trying to establish itself inside Somalia.