2024-01-11 15:25:20
Searches are still underway Thursday in the Hindhere region, 470 kilometers north of Mogadishu, to locate the passengers of a UN helicopter forced to land following a technical problem in an area controlled by the Shebab. According to an internal UN memo, six of them were potentially taken hostage by the Islamist group, one passenger was killed and two others managed to flee.
Published on: 01/11/2024 – 4:25 p.m.
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Searches were underway on Thursday, January 11, to locate the passengers of a UN helicopter “captured” by the radical Islamists Shebab after the machine was forced to make an emergency landing the day before in the center of Somalia, according to military sources.
The search was concentrated in the Hindhere region, 470 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu, where the helicopter had to land after a technical problem shortly after leaving the town of Beledweyne, these sources said.
This note mentioned six passengers potentially taken hostage by the Shebab who regularly carry out attacks against security, political and civilian targets. One passenger was reportedly killed and two others managed to escape. The staff were contractors and not UN personnel.
Radio silence on the Shebab side
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a UN employee in Mogadishu said he had been “informed of the incident and it was confirmed that there was a hostage-taking including foreigners but no details are available.” .
A group affiliated with al-Qaeda which has led an insurgency against the Somali government since 2007, the Shebab has not communicated.
A traditional chief in the Wisil area, Osman Warsame, said he “received information that this helicopter was transporting medical equipment and was to evacuate injured Somali soldiers from Wisil.”
“The area where we were told he landed is a place under Shebab control,” he added.
Driven out of the main cities in 2011-2012, the Shebab remain established in vast rural areas of the center and south of the country.
The government of President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud launched a vast offensive in August 2023, supported by the American army and the African Union force present in the country (Atmis), which, after allowing the reconquest of territories in the center of the country, is currently at a standstill.
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