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Eritrea behind AU summit attack plot - U.N. report
By David Clarke
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Eritrea was behind a plot to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and is bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Somali rebels through its embassy in Kenya, according to a U.N. report.
A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea said the Red Sea state's intelligence personnel were active in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, and that the country's actions posed a threat to security and peace in the region.
"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," the report obtained by Reuters said.
The plan was 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.
The U.N. said while past Eritrean support for rebel groups in both Somalia and Ethiopia had to be seen in the context of an unresolved border dispute with Addis Ababa, the new approach was a threat to the whole of the Horn and east Africa.
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Eritrea planned massive bomb attack on African Union summit, UN says
'Baghdad-style' car bomb attack planned in Addis Ababa, capital of neighbour and foe Ethiopia, which hosted 30 heads of state
Eritrea planned massive bomb attack on African Union summit, UN says
'Baghdad-style' car bomb attack planned in Addis Ababa, capital of neighbour and foe Ethiopia, which hosted 30 heads of state
Bombs were to be placed between the Ethiopian PM's office and a hotel where heads of state were staying in Addis Ababa Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
Eritrea planned a massive attack on an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January this year that was designed to "make Addis Ababa like Baghdad", according to a new UN report.
At the time, Ethiopia claimed it had foiled the large bomb plot by its tiny neighbour and foe, the latest in a series of accusations and counter-accusations by the two governments. Now an investigation by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea suggests that the plot was genuine, and says it represented "a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics" in the Horn of Africa.
According to the report, Eritrean intelligence services planned an operation to detonate a car bomb at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa at the end of January this year, when 30 of the continent's leaders were meeting there. Separate bombs were to be placed between the Ethiopian prime minister's office and the Sheraton Hotel, where most of the heads of state were staying, as well as in a giant open-air market in the hope of "kill[ing] many people".
"If executed as planned, the operation would almost certainly have caused mass civilian casualties, damaged the Ethiopian economy and disrupted the African Union summit," the report said.
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