By Abdalle Ahmed
Somaliland Civil Aviation Minister Mohamud Hashi Abdi.
HARGEYSA (RBC) A breakaway administration in Somalia’s Northern region of Somaliland has banned on Tuesday UN flights from its airports following anger at Somalia Federal Government’s take over its airspace control declared on Monday, RBC Radio reports.
Somaliland Civil Aviation Minister Mohamud Hashi Abdi issued the order against UN agencies alleging that UNDP and Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority of Somalia (CACAS) based in Nairobi violated previous agreement between Somalia government, UNDP and the Somaliland administration.
“We had already signed an agreement which allows an independent panel to control the airspace.” the minister said in his press conference in Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland today.
“Unfortunately CACAS and UNDP seem to siding with Mogadishu government.” he alleged.
Somaliland Civil Aviation Minister Mohamud Hashi Abdi declared starting from Wednesday May 15th 2013 no UN flights could arrive Somaliland airports and that the administration will not permit any UN flights to land in Somaliland-run airports.
Somalia government has announced on Sunday that it is preparing to take over the control of its airspace by the end of this year.
The Minister of Information, Posts, Telecommunication and Transportation Abdullahi Elmoge Hersi and other government officials met on Sunday in Mogadishu with officials from the United Nations Development Program and representatives from Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority of Somalia (CACAS) based in Nairobi. The meeting officially declared transfer supervision of the country’s airspace to Somalia federal government in Mogadishu.
There are no immediate comments from the office of United Nations in Somalia.
Somalia’s airspace control has been under the Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority of Somalia (CACAS) which is a civil aviation authority programme created by the United Nations in 1996, with a mandate in Somalia.
CACAS has served as a caretaker for Somalia’s airspace since the collapse of the central government in the early 1990s following the outbreak of the civil war. The organization has collected over-flight revenues on behalf of the country.
Several attempts by previous Somalia transitional governments to take over the service failed because of lack of skilled and trained staff and the long time wars the country has plunged into.
RBC Radio
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