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An Ethiopian anti-aircraft missile shot down the Kenyan plane that crashed in the Somali city of Bardale last week, killing six people on board, several sources told VOA Somali.
Ethiopian forces are stationed in Bardale to help their Somali counterparts maintain control of the city, once controlled by the al-Shabab militant group.
The May 4 incident began when the incoming Kenyan plane aborted a landing attempt because an Ethiopian military vehicle fitted with Zu anti-aircraft missiles was on the runway, authorities say.
The plane flew over the military vehicle to make a second attempt to land. The Ethiopian soldier operating the Zu fired multiple rounds and hit the plane, according to witnesses and Somali officials.
Weydow Ali Hassan is the head of social affairs for the city. Hassan was one of the officials waiting on the runway to receive the medical supplies the plane was carrying.
“There was a technical vehicle mounted with a gun at the place where the plane would land. We thought it was going to collide with him, ”Hassan said.
After the missiles were fired, the plane burst into flames and crashed to the side of the runway, according to Hassan.
His account was confirmed by a regional minister and an aviation official who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
A fourth official not in Bardale said a donkey on the runway forced the plane to abort the landing and not the Ethiopian military vehicle. Hassan disputed that account.
“There was no donkey present there,” he said. “There were Ethiopian soldiers and their vehicles.”
Ethiopian military officials acknowledged that their soldiers shot down the plane but say that their military did not know that the plane should arrive. They also say that soldiers feared the plane could “bombard them.”
Bardale, a small town about 60 kilometers west of Baidoa, lacks an air traffic control tower. Flight arrivals are telephoned to Somali officials on the ground.
“They were scared; it created fear,” says a source close to Ethiopian soldiers. The soldier who fired the missile has been in Bardale “for about 20 days,” according to the official.
A team of investigators from Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia has started an investigation.
The team will visit the crash site near the Bardale airstrip. His first task is to retrieve the black box and voice recorder from the E120 plane, owned by the Kenyan company African Express Airways. The recorders were located the day after the accident, but authorities decided not to retrieve them until experts arrived. The area has since been closed, according to an official.
Somalia suspended international and local flights due to the coronavirus epidemic, but the plane, registered by an NGO, had a special one-day permit to deliver medical supplies to Bardale.
Another controversial issue is the condition of the soldier who shot on the plane. Multiple sources, including an AMISOM source, say they were told that the person is a “non-AMISOM” soldier.
Non-AMISOM soldiers are Ethiopians operating outside the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia. Ethiopia has almost 4,000 soldiers serving as part of the AU mission, but the non-AMISOM forces are larger. According to a trusted official, 75% of Ethiopian troops in Somalia are non-AMISOM soldiers.
Somali and Ethiopian officials say non-AMISOM soldiers operate under a “bilateral agreement.” The Somali opposition questions the legality of the presence of Ethiopian forces outside AMISOM in the country.
The Somali government said it will await the results of the investigation that is being carried out.
“All the evidence is there [in Bardale]; we got ready, we saw the witnesses, ”says Somali Transport and Aviation Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Salat, who visited the scene last week. “We are waiting for experts from Kenya and Ethiopia to join us so that we can do a transparent investigation to share with the families of the lost and the company about what happened, how it happened, and how to prevent similar incidents.”
