5 AU soldiers arrested over theft of fuel, military supplies in Somalia

Somali security officers have arrested five soldiers working for the Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and ten civilians for selling military supplies and fuel in the black market in Mogadishu on Sunday.

Somali Police Commissioner, Gen. Mohamed Hassan Hamud said the 15 suspects were nabbed during a security operation conducted by Somali police and intelligence officers at a garage in Benadir region.

"We arrested 5 AMISOM troops and 10 other Somali people who were selling AMISOM military supplies including fuel in Mogadishu. We recovered telephones ammunition materials and petrol and others," Hamud said.

He however, did not disclose the identities or nationalities of the five AMISOM soldiers who were arrested on Sunday.

Minister of Internal Security Abdirisak Omar Mohamed said the suspects will be arraigned in court once investigations have been completed since they committed a criminal action.

"This is a criminal action in which the government will not accept, but will pursue and take proper action against it," Mohamed said.

The AU soldiers and the other people will appear before the justice according to the Attorney General, Ahmed Ali Dahir.

This is the first time that the Somali government forces have arrested AU peacekeeping troops found engaging in activities against their mission in the country.

The troops from the pan African body and Somali National Army are jointly carrying out operations against Al-Shabaab militants in the south and central Somalia at moment.

There is no comment from AU officials on this issue so far.

The arrest comes after the European Union announced it would cut its financial support to the pan Africa body. Endit