Overview

• On July 2, a Ugandan Air Force Mi-24 helicopter serving the AU mission crashed during landing at Aden Adde International Airport, igniting a fireball and thick smoke.
• Smoke and flames forced multiple inbound flights, including a Turkish Airlines jet, to divert to nearby airports before Mogadishu’s runway reopened.
• Fatality figures remain unclear, with Somali authorities reporting at least three deaths and Kampala confirming five Ugandan soldiers killed among eight people aboard.
• Somali Civil Aviation Authority officials and AU investigators have launched a joint probe to determine what caused the helicopter to plummet and to reconcile divergent casualty counts.
• The incident underscores long-standing safety vulnerabilities for peacekeeping and humanitarian aviation operations in Somalia’s conflict-ridden airspace.