Somalia: Efforts to rescue hostages from a UN helicopter held by terrorists

Mogadishu (Al-Ittihad, agencies)

The Somali government is working to rescue passengers of a UN helicopter seized by the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, but army officers said it will be difficult to reach the area to which they were taken, a spokesman said yesterday.
Searches were conducted to locate the passengers of the UN helicopter, after it carried out an emergency landing on Wednesday in the center of the country, according to military sources.
These sources were unable to determine the number of hostages, but one of them confirmed that among them were “foreigners” without being able to determine their nationalities. The sources reported that search operations were focused in the Hindhir area, 470 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu, where the helicopter was forced to land as a result of a technical problem shortly after leaving the town of Beledweyne.
An internal United Nations memorandum stated that a helicopter was carrying out a medical evacuation operation with nine people on board, including passengers and crew members, carried out an “emergency landing” near Gadon, 65 km from Hindhar in Galmudug state in central Somalia.
The incident occurred in an area believed to be under the control of the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement.
The memorandum indicated that the armed movement took six passengers hostage, while one of the passengers was killed in mysterious circumstances, and two others fled to unknown places, “note that these reports cannot be independently confirmed,” according to the memorandum. The memo said that the passengers were not United Nations employees but contractors, noting that one of them was Somali, while the nationalities of the rest were not mentioned. Captain Abdel Salam Mohammed told AFP: “It has been confirmed that Al-Shabaab fighters have taken a number of the helicopter crew hostage, and we believe they are holding them in the Hindhar area.”
Mohamed Adan, another military official in Galmudug state, said: “We do not have details, but we were informed that the helicopter was transporting medical supplies to Wesil (an area 150 kilometers from the potential landing site) and that some of the passengers captured by Al-Shabaab are foreigners.” A United Nations employee in Mogadishu, who requested to remain anonymous, said that he “was informed of the incident, and it was confirmed that there was a hostage-taking operation, including foreigners, but no details are available.”
Osman Warsame, a tribal leader in the Wesel region, said that he “received information that this helicopter was transporting medical equipment, and was going to evacuate wounded Somali soldiers from Wesel.” He added, “The area where we were told they landed is under the control of Al-Shabaab.” Washington has classified the movement as a terrorist organization since 2008. After being defeated from the main cities in Somalia in 2011-2012, the movement remained concentrated in vast rural areas, especially in the center and south of the country.