Six people killed in plane crash in Somalia

Written by Angella Semu

At least six people have been reported dead following a plane crash carrying coronavirus aid in Somalia on Monday night.

Somalia’s Minister of Transport Mohamed Salad confirmed this in a statement.

Reports revealed that the plane that belonged to African Express Airways was carrying medical equipment to Bardale town in Bay region during the time of the crash.

In an interview with Reuters, former defence minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed disclosed that a witness at the airfield confided with him that the plane appeared to have been shot down while attempting to land.

All 6 people on board were killed including two Kenyan pilots and two Somali nationals with the other two nationalities yet to be determined and five bodies have recovered so far.

The al Shabaab insurgency in the area where the plane came down have refused to comment anything on the incident.

Transport Minister Mohamed Salad has however disclosed that investigations have been launched to established the cause of the tragedy

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).