Five feared dead in Ugandan military helicopter crash in Somalia

Kampala/Mogadishu, July 2 (IANS) The Ugandan military said Wednesday that one of its helicopters crashed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, with five of the eight people on board feared dead.

Felix Kulayigye, spokesperson for the Ugandan military, told Xinhua news agency that three people on board survived, while a search operation is still underway.

"Eight people were on board. Three made it out safely but with severe burns," said Kulayigye. "The search is still on. They are fighting the fire."

According to Kulayigye, a team will soon be dispatched to Mogadishu to investigate the cause of the crash, which occurred about 200 metres from the runway at Aden Adde International Airport on Wednesday morning. The helicopter was returning from a routine escort mission at the time of the incident.

The Ugandan military has ruled out the possibility of an external attack, with Kulayigye saying that Mogadishu has largely been cleared of the al-Shabab militant group, making it unlikely that the Mi-24 helicopter was shot down.

"Being an attack helicopter, it was loaded with rockets, so the rockets caused the fire. If it was an external action, we would not be talking about investigations because we would have known the cause," he said.

"Of course it (the crash) does affect the proficiency of escort duties for those convoys that carry logistics. When one helicopter is out of action, you certainly feel the pinch. But it will not stop the work that is being done," Kulayigye added.

The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) confirmed the accident, saying that the helicopter, operated by the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces contingent, crash-landed at around 7:30 am local time (0430 GMT) after departing from Baledogle Airfield, about 90 kilometres northwest of the Somali capital.

"Three of the eight passengers on board were immediately rescued and rushed to the AUSSOM Level II hospital in Mogadishu for medical attention," AUSSOM said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

Ahmed Macallin Hassan, Director General of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, said flight operations at the airport were continuing as normal, although a section of the runway has been temporarily closed due to debris from the crash.

Last September, the Ugandan military lost a transport helicopter while flying from Mogadishu to Baledogle Airfield. All four peacekeepers on board survived that incident, according to the military.

Uganda has been one of the key troop-contributing countries to the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Horn of Africa since 2007.

--IANS

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