Region | Somalia
Hardliners threaten to shut Somali airport
Somali Islamists have threatened to stop aircraft using Mogadishu's main airport as part of an escalating insurgency rocking the Horn of Africa nation.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 September 15, 2008
Mogadishu: Somali Islamists have threatened to stop aircraft using Mogadishu's main airport as part of an escalating insurgency rocking the Horn of Africa nation.
The hardline Islamist group Al Shaba'ab, which is fighting the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers, said it would stop planes from landing after midnight on Tuesday.
"We banned all planes from Mogadishu after confirming that American spies, the African Union, Ethiopians and the infidel government troops use the airport," said a statement in Somali on www.kataaib.net, one of several sites used by the hardliners.
The sea-front airport in south Mogadishu is used for government and commercial flights. African Union (AU) peacekeepers and some visiting UN missions also fly there.
Aid groups tend to use other landing strips.
"We warn the Somali businessmen: Ethiopia gets revenue from Mogadishu airport. [AU mission] Amisom and Ethiopians also transport their injured and dead soldiers from this airport," said the statement that appeared over the weekend.
The African Union has 2,200 peacekeepers in Somalia, mainly based at the airport. They have done little to stem violence and the pan-African body wants to hand over to the United Nations.
The airport has suffered a string of attacks since Islamists launched an Iraq-style insurgency in 2007.
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