A Ugandan military helicopter carrying eight personnel crashed and caught fire Wednesday at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport, leaving five people missing and three others hospitalized with burn injuries, according to Ugandan and Somali officials.
The aircraft, part of Uganda’s contingent within the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, went down in the military section of the airport shortly after arriving from Balidogle airbase, roughly 90 kilometers northwest of the capital.
“We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke entirely covered the helicopter,” said Farah Abdulle, an airport worker who witnessed the crash.
Ugandan army spokesperson Major General Felix Kulaigye confirmed the incident, adding that the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Emergency crews quickly contained the fire, according to Somalia’s state-run news agency.
The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) said in a statement that three survivors were taken to hospital, and efforts were underway to recover the remaining crew.
Ahmed Maalim, head of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, told the BBC the crash occurred in the restricted military section of the airport and did not impact overall operations. However, a Turkish Airlines flight was briefly delayed.
Ugandan troops are part of the AU’s 11,000-strong force assisting Somalia’s federal government in its decades-long fight against al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group that continues to carry out deadly attacks across the country.
Both AU and Somali officials confirmed a joint investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the crash.
