Fri, Sep 15, 2006
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.
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