Ethiopia on Saturday admitted it was behind the shooting
down of a privately owned Kenyan plane in Somalia earlier this week,
resulting in the deaths of all six people on board.
The plane was
shot down on Monday by Ethiopian troops protecting a camp in the town
of Bardale in southwestern Somalia, the Ethiopian army said in a
statement to the African Union (AU).
The aircraft had been
carrying humanitarian and medical supplies to help the country fight the
spread of coronavirus when it went down in Bardale, about 300km (180
miles) northwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu.
The Ethiopian
soldiers mistakenly believed the plane was on a "potential suicide
mission" because they had not been informed about the "unusual flight"
and the aircraft was flying low, the statement said.
"Because of
lack of communication and awareness, the aircraft was shot down," the
military said. "The incident … will require mutual collaborative
investigation team from Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya to further
understand the truth."
Kenya expressed shock over the incident
earlier this week, saying the plane's mission had been to aid Somalia in
tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Soldiers from Ethiopia and
Kenya are among those deployed to Somalia as part of an AU peacekeeping
mission to fight the armed group al-Shabab.
The shooting down of the plane comes amid strained ties between Kenya and Somalia.
Last
month, Kenya accused Somali troops of an "unwarranted attack" across
its border near Mandera, a northern outpost town, describing the
incident as a provocation.
Somalia, meanwhile, has long accused its larger neighbour of meddling in its internal affairs, something Kenya has denied.
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