Region | Somalia
Mogadishu airport closed following insurgent threat
Mogadishu's main airport was largely shut down on Wednesday after a Somali insurgent group, Al Shaba'ab, threatened to attack any plane using it.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:37 September 17, 2008
Mogadishu: Mogadishu's main airport was largely shut down on Wednesday after a Somali insurgent group, Al Shaba'ab, threatened to attack any plane using it.
Staff at the airport said carriers using the sea-front facility in south Mogadishu had decided not to take any risk, following the threat by Al Shaba'ab to target aircraft landing or taking off after midnight on Tuesday.
Al Shaba'ab, which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups, is spearheading an insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers.
"Turning deaf ears to what Al Shaba'ab said means planes will be burned and staff assassinated at their houses," an official at the airport said. "We have agreed not to land planes."
Al Shaba'ab had earlier said the airport was a legitimate target because it was used by the Somali government, the Ethiopian military and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, whom it perceives as propping up the government.
About four of five flights daily were going through Mogadishu airport before yesterday. The AU, which has 2,200 peacekeepers in Somalia, mainly based at the airport, condemned the threat, saying it would harm locals because it would block supplies.
The AU spokesman, Barigye Ba-Hoku, said the peacekeeping mission had no immediate scheduled flights, but it would continue to use the airport. "For us it is still open, but we shall not take the threat lightly. We are alert 24 hours," he said.
"This threat is nothing new because the airport was subjected to attacks since we first arrived," he added.
String of attacks
The airport has suffered a string of attacks since fighters launched an Iraq-style insurgency in early 2007 that has killed nearly 10,000 civilians and an unknown number of combatants.
Al Shaba'ab's threat against the airport reflects the growing confidence of one of the main protagonists in the Somali war. The group last month led a takeover of southern Kismayu port, giving it a strategic base near Kenya.
The United Nations' special envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who is in Djibouti trying to promote a peace deal between the Somali government and moderate opposition figures, condemned Al Shaba'ab's move.
Journalists held captive
Al Jazeera television on Tuesday aired a video showing a Canadian and an Australian journalist kidnapped in Somalia last month.
The channel reported the pair were appealing to their governments to work for their release.
Canadian Amanda Lindhout, 27, Australian Nigel Brennan and Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammad Elmi, working as their translator, were seized on August 23 by gunmen near Mogadishu.
The video showed Lindhout, wearing a long robe, and her colleague along with armed men. She was speaking to the camera, but the audio track was not aired.
The television said the kidnappers, calling themselves Mujahedin of Somalia, had accused Canada and Australia of "taking part in the destruction of Somalia" and demanded that they review their policies.
An official of the group Reporters Without Borders said last week that the kidnappers were seeking $2.5 million (Dh9.19 million) for the return of the captives.
Insurgents in Somalia have denied being behind the kidnapping.
Abductions are common in the country where insurgents have been fighting the interim government and its Ethiopian military allies since early 2007.
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