A Ugandan military helicopter deployed under the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia crashed while attempting to land at Mogadishu’s international airport on Wednesday, killing five of the eight people on board, according to Uganda’s military.
Brigadier General Felix Kulayigye, spokesperson for the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), confirmed that three occupants survived but sustained severe injuries and burns.
The crash triggered an explosion as munitions onboard detonated, damaging nearby structures and injuring at least three civilians on the ground, he added.
The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) said the aircraft went down just short of the runway. In a statement issued earlier, the mission said search and rescue operations had been launched to recover those onboard.
Eyewitnesses described the aftermath as chaotic. “We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter,” said Farah Abdulle, an airport worker. “The smoke entirely covered the helicopter.”
Somalia’s state-run news agency SONNA reported that the helicopter was engulfed in flames after impact.
The aircraft was part of AUSSOM’s ongoing deployment to support Somali government forces in their long-running fight against al Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group that has waged a brutal insurgency for nearly 20 years in an effort to impose a harsh form of Islamic rule across the country.
AUSSOM currently has more than 11,000 personnel stationed in Somalia.