Somaliland Sees No Security Threats To Ethiopian Flights
Ethiopian
Somaliland’s Aviation Minister, Ali Mohamed Warancadde, says security is not part of the reasons why Ethiopian Airlines has not yet resumed flights to Hargeisa, Somaliland.
Ethiopian
The Minister who was speaking to reporters in Hargeisa about his efforts to beef up security at Hargeisa airport, was asked about recent reports indicating that Ethiopian is considering establishing direct flights to Berbera instead.
Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Hargeisa soon after the October 2008 suicide attack orchestrated by Somalia’s Al-Shabab terrorist group that hit various high profile targets in Hargeisa killing more than 30 people.
The Ethiopian weekly business newspaper Capital quoted Leul T. Medhin, Acting Public Relations head of Ethiopian, as saying “the security threat [in Somaliland] has not yet diminished enough for the Ethiopia’s national carrier to resume flights”.
Capital also reported that Ethiopian is assessing the possibility of starting flights to Berbera airport.
Despite the clear security concerns, Somaliland Aviation Minister dismisses security as a reason why Ethiopian Airlines has not resumed its direct flights to Hargeisa and may completely abandon Hargeisa flights altogether in favor of Berbera airport.
Several high profile terrorist attacks in the past failed to change how Somaliland government views security in the country. Concerns from Ethiopian and others prove that enough preventative measures were not taken to reduce threats posed by terrorist groups operating from bases in Somalia.
In October 2003 Annalena Tonelli, an Italian woman working at the tuberculosis hospital she started in Borama, was killed. Within weeks a British couple working for a charity as teachers were gunned down in their residence at Sheikh Secondary School. Five months later a Kenyan woman consultant working for a German NGO, GTZ, was killed and the German program manager norrowly escaped with minor injuries when terrorists from Somalia ambushed their vehicle as they travelled between Hargeisa and Berbera.
Comments are closed.