A helicopter belonging to the Ugandan military has crashed and caught fire at Somalia’s main international Airport in Mogadishu, killing at least five people.
The deceased were those on board the helicopter.
According to the Ugandan military spokesman, Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye, the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer survived with “serious injuries and severe burns”.
The spokesperson says an investigation into the cause of the crash was under way.
Farah Abdulle, one of the staff at the airport, reportedly told Reuters news agency that “We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke entirely covered the helicopter.”
According to Somalia’s state-run news agency, the fire was quickly contained by the emergency services at the Aden Adde International Airport.
Ugandan troops are part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the government fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for more than two decades.
The helicopter that crashed had been conducting a “routine combat escort mission”, Maj Gen Kulaigye says. He did not provide further details.
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