MOGADISHU: A plane carrying aid supplies for use in the fight against the COVID-19 crashed in Somalia on Monday.
According to State-run Somalia News Agency, the plane belonged to African Express Airways crashed near Bardale town. As a result, six people were killed.
“An African (Express) Airways plane from Mogadishu flew to Baidoa and then continued its flight to Bardale town where it crashed,” the agency said on its website. “It is not clear why it crashed.”
According to a former defence minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, he had spoken to a witness at the airfield who said it appeared to have been shot down.
Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked insurgency al Shabaab has a presence in the area where the plane came down, he added.
The country’s Transport Minister Mohamed Salad said six people — the pilot, copilot, flight engineer and a trainee pilot, as well as two people working for the airline — were onboard. Five bodies have been recovered so far, he added.
Salad said he was sending a unit to investigate, who will arrive on Tuesday, and welcomed international assistance.
Ethiopia has troops in Baidoa and Bardale as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission. The spokesman for the Ethiopian army said he was unaware of the crash.
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