Deanw
17th May 2004, 15:29
Landmine found on airstrip in Somalia
May 17 2004 at 12:48PM
Nairobi - An aid agency has temporarily withdrawn its international staff from a southern Somali town as a security precaution after finding a new landmine on the runway of a local airstrip, the organisation said on Monday.
David Querol, Nairobi-based head of mission for the Somali operation of Medecins sans Frontieres-Switzerland, said four international staff were withdrawn from Dinsor town after the concealed device was discovered by chance on May 12.
"We found a landmine modified for remote control detonation," he said in brief remarks by telephone. "We found it completely by chance. The landmine looked completely new."
He said the device appeared to have been placed some time in the two days before its discovery.
MSF-Switzerland operates a small hospital in the town 170km west of the capital Mogadishu. The agency also employs 45 Somali staff at the hospital, which remains open.
The south is the most volatile area of the lawless country of more than seven million which collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then.
At least 45 people have been killed and 85 wounded this month in Mogadishu and other parts of the south in some of the heaviest factional fighting in months.
Officials of other aid agencies said without elaborating that they were making changes to flight schedules as a security precaution following the incident at the Dinsor airstrip.
"We are very concerned," one of the Nairobi-based officials said, adding the device had been concealed at the end of the runway in a place where aircraft make a turn after landing or before takeoff.
Aid agencies fly daily from bases in Nairobi to airstrips in Somalia to support humanitarian and development projects. Most aid groups operating in Somalia are based in neighbouring Kenya as Somalia is seen as too dangerous for international staff to maintain a permanent presence.
Warlords and clan leaders are trying to restore a central government at reconciliation talks hosted by Kenya, but the 18-month-old process has been dogged by rifts between Ethiopia and Arab states, rivals for influence in the Horn of Africa.
Kenya and United States officials regard Somalia as a potential safe haven for militants. A United Nations report said al-Qaeda fighters trained in Somalia before launching a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa in November 2002.
May 17 2004 at 12:48PM
Nairobi - An aid agency has temporarily withdrawn its international staff from a southern Somali town as a security precaution after finding a new landmine on the runway of a local airstrip, the organisation said on Monday.
David Querol, Nairobi-based head of mission for the Somali operation of Medecins sans Frontieres-Switzerland, said four international staff were withdrawn from Dinsor town after the concealed device was discovered by chance on May 12.
"We found a landmine modified for remote control detonation," he said in brief remarks by telephone. "We found it completely by chance. The landmine looked completely new."
He said the device appeared to have been placed some time in the two days before its discovery.
MSF-Switzerland operates a small hospital in the town 170km west of the capital Mogadishu. The agency also employs 45 Somali staff at the hospital, which remains open.
The south is the most volatile area of the lawless country of more than seven million which collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then.
At least 45 people have been killed and 85 wounded this month in Mogadishu and other parts of the south in some of the heaviest factional fighting in months.
Officials of other aid agencies said without elaborating that they were making changes to flight schedules as a security precaution following the incident at the Dinsor airstrip.
"We are very concerned," one of the Nairobi-based officials said, adding the device had been concealed at the end of the runway in a place where aircraft make a turn after landing or before takeoff.
Aid agencies fly daily from bases in Nairobi to airstrips in Somalia to support humanitarian and development projects. Most aid groups operating in Somalia are based in neighbouring Kenya as Somalia is seen as too dangerous for international staff to maintain a permanent presence.
Warlords and clan leaders are trying to restore a central government at reconciliation talks hosted by Kenya, but the 18-month-old process has been dogged by rifts between Ethiopia and Arab states, rivals for influence in the Horn of Africa.
Kenya and United States officials regard Somalia as a potential safe haven for militants. A United Nations report said al-Qaeda fighters trained in Somalia before launching a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa in November 2002.