An Ethiopian Air-force military cargo plane (Antonov-24) crashed at Mogadishu airport early Friday. Four immediatedly passes away, while two were injured.

Read below the press release from AMISOM and news stories from Reuters and InnerCityPress – published today.

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AMISOM (African Union Mission to Somalia)
Press Release

AU Special Representative condoles with Ethiopia on the loss of lives following crash landing of its Air Force Plane in Mogadishu

Mogadishu-August 9th, 2013; An Ethiopian Air Force flight today crash landed at Mogadishu International Airport killing four crew members and injuring two others. The two are currently receiving medical attention at the AMISOM hospital in Mogadishu.

The air crash occurred shortly before 0800hrs when the plane burst into flames upon landing. Emergency medical and fire personnel were on location and immediately contained the fire rescuing the two casualties. The exact cause of the crash is yet to be established but investigations are currently underway.

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif expressed his heartfelt condolences to the Government and people of Ethiopia following the loss of lives and wished quick recovery for the injured crew members.

There has been no damage to the runway and operations at the airport are expected to resume shortly.

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Reuters:-

Crew killed in Ethiopian plane crash

An Ethiopian military aircraft carrying ammunition has crash-landed at Mogadishu’s international airport, bursting into flames and killing four of the six crew members.

The Soviet-made Antonov 24 plane got into trouble in the air and then missed the runway, hurtling into the ground shortly after 0400 GMT and setting off the ammunition.

Ethiopian troops are supporting Somalia’s fight against al Qaeda-linked militants in the Horn of Africa country, although they are not part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. There was no immediate comment from Ethiopia’s foreign ministry.

“We can hear explosions as it burns. It is burning like hell,” said one security source at the airport. After the fire was put out, only a blackened shell of the plane remained.

The AU peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, said in a statement four crew members were killed and two were in hospital.

It was unclear what ammunition the plane was carrying and where it was headed. A convoy of empty Somali military trucks had earlier been seen at the airport.

In March, the U.N. Security Council partially lifted a decades-old arms embargo for one year to help the government buy light weapons to strengthen its military to fight the Islamist rebel group, al Shabaab.

AMISOM said the airport, home to a growing number of passenger flights since African troops and Somali government forces flushed al Shabaab rebels from their bases in the capital two years ago, would resume operations shortly.

It gave no details on what caused the plane to crash.

Military aircraft regularly land at the city’s airport, which also serves as the headquarters for the AU peacekeepers.

Ethiopia sent forces inside Somalia in 2011 to open up a new front in the military campaign to crush the al Shabaab insurgents and end their six-year fight to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law on the country.

The Addis Ababa government is, though, frustrated by the slow pace at which the 17,700-strong AU force and Somali troops have backfilled areas liberated from al Shabaab.

Earlier this year Ethiopia threatened to pull its soldiers out.

Somalia’s aviation record is among the worst on a continent which has a history of plane disasters. Until recently, the carcass of another Russian-made cargo plane lay tilted on its belly near the passenger terminal of Mogadishu’s airport.

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InnerCityPress:

Plane of Ethiopia Arms Burns in Somalia, Sanctions Violations Cited, UN Silent

UNITED NATIONS, August 9 — When an Ethiopian military plane full of weapons was burning today on the tarmac of the airport in Mogadishu, journalists trying to take photographs were refused entry and told to leave. What does the UN have to say about it?

It must be noted that the UN’s own sanctions panel, the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group, in its most recent report at page 319 linked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces to violations of sanctions in Somalia:

according to data received by the Monitoring Group, the Ethiopian air force has operated in January and February 2013, three military cargo flights to Baidoa, without prior notification of the Committee. On 22 April 2013, the Monitoring Group sent a letter to the Government of Ethiopia requesting clarification and additional information, for which no reply has yet been forthcoming.

19. Information obtained by the Monitoring Group from several UN sources indicates that these flights may be related to supply of military equipment to Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) operations on Somali territory, and therefore constitute a potential violation of the arms embargo on Somalia.

So will the SEMG have access to the plane? And what DOES the UN say?

The SEMG report also has the UN itself violating sanctions. And the UN Mine Action Service’s David Bax, despite spoon-fed attempts to rehabilitate him, not only played a role in the sharing of genetic information from bombs in Somalia with the US FBI, but ran around Mogadishu, not only on the day of the attack on the UN compound, with weapons of dubious origin.

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