Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
The UN Security Council agreed to impose an arms embargo on Eritrea. The Council also decided to impose travel bans and freeze assets of government and military leaders supporting Somali insurgents, officials said. Eritrea is accused of providing insurgents with money and weapons as to overthrow the Somali government.
Eritrea denies supporting Al-Shabaab and says there is no reason for imposing the sanctions.
Western diplomats on the 15-nation Security Council said most members of the team have decided to support a Ugandan-drafted resolution to punish Eritrea and will approve it by next week.
The resolution informs Asmara to stop all support to armed groups and their members, including Al-shabaab which is fighting to topple the Somali weak government.
According to Reuters the diplomats said they were not expecting a unanimous vote, as Libya has made it clear it would vote against the resolution. But they said they were ready to make further revisions to secure Tripoli's vote.
Russia and China, which are in general unwilling to back sanctions, came around after it became clear the overwhelming majority of African Union members support taking the action against Somalia's neighbor, diplomats told Reuters.
Libya who currently leads Africa Union rejected the idea of U.N sanctions against Asmara.
Some government officials and Somali rebels took shelter in Eritrea after being expelled from Mogadishu when Ethiopian forces entered Somalia in 2006.
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