Isaias Afewerki, the Eritrean president accused of supporting Islamist rebels in Somalia, has ridiculed the fragile Somali government and criticised the international community for its frantic efforts to prop it up.

Mr Isaias, an abrasive former guerrilla who helped win independence for his tiny country on Africa’s Red Sea coast in 1993, told the Financial Times: “There doesn’t exist any government. There is a vacuum.”