Plane Conveying Medical Supplies Crashes In Somalia

A plane conveying medical supplies has crashed in the south-western part of Somalia, the crash killed six people including two pilots, this is according to Somali authorities.

The spokesperson for the Somali Government, Ismael Mukhtar Omar, said, “The cause of the accident is not yet known."

The airplane had taken off from the Baidoa airport located in the country's Bay region, and was said to be conveying medical supplies that would be used to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Reports have it that the plane had crashed shortly after it took off near Bardaale where it was headed, the spokesperson said.

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Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority Director General, Gilbert Kibe, said that the crashed plane was a property of Kenya's African Express Airways and that authorities were working to confirm the cause of the accident and the official number of fatalities.

There have been rumors in the media pointing to the activation of a missile from Ethiopian troops who are in the area, as Ethiopian forces alongside Somali and African Union agents have a presence in the area to combat the Islamist extrimist group of al-Shabaab in the region.

The extrimist group have been, for years, trying to occupy the territory to establish an Islamist state in Somalia.