Gunmen Open Fire On Landing Aircraft

UN aid operations were suspended around Gedo, in southern Somalia, after an aid aircraft took ground fire while attempting to land at Garbaharey near the Keynan border southwest of Mogadishu.

According to Spero News, local militia, using small arms, ambushed the aircraft -- type unknown, but assumed to be a Cessna -- during its approach to a small dirt strip used mainly for humanitarian flights. Local sources say there were no casualties, but not whether the aircraft was damaged.

Somalia is in the midst of a severe drought. Local warlords and their militias control access to the civil population in many areas of Somalia. That means aid organizations are forced to make deals with the warlords in return for security guarantees.

Many areas of Somalia are inaccessible by ground vehicles necessitating the use of aircraft to transport critical medical and other perishable supplies. UN and other aid organizations have been operating in Somalia for decades, but efforts have stepped up recently because of the drought.

With no effective government outside the city of Baidoa for 15 years, outlying districts are administered through a system of alliances between sometimes rival clans.

This incident may have sparked from a dispute between local tribal leaders and the district administrator. Armed groups have been extorting illegal taxes from landing and departing aircraft for years. Tribal leaders have been demanding increased security at the airport and there is speculation they may have staged this attack to prove their point.

FMI: www.un.org