Somalia investigates source of $9.6 million impounded from a foreign plane

MOGADISHU – Somalia’s internal security ministry has officially confirmed on Monday that the country’s anti-terror unit has impounded $9.6 million from a foreign plane that landed at Aden Abdulle International Airport in the nation’s capital over the weekend.

In a statement, the ministry said that security agents are carrying out investigations into the source of the money, its destination, individuals involved in it and the aim of trafficking such a huge amount of money into the country.

“Monetary assistance provided to the government is made in a way that abides by the international and Somali laws on transferring money,” said the statement, noting that the country receives financial assistance from foreign countries.

Although local sources said the plane, Boeing 737, which landed at 11:40am local, originated from Abu Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the official statement didn’t delve into any further details about the plane and how was it allowed to fly out of the country.

Somali security agents didn’t abuse anyone during the search operation and subsequent impoundment of the money, said the statement.

Somalia and the United Arab Emirates have been locked in a bitter diplomatic spat since the Gulf state cut deals with politicians from the northwestern region of Somalia to manage Berbera port and set up a military base there.

Last month, Somalia has taken its protest to the United Nation Security Council, asking the world body to take action against the Emirates.

“The Federal Government of Somalia therefore calls on the Security Council to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its mandate, to maintain international peace and security, put an end to those actions and
ensure the implementation of its resolution on Somalia,” Somalia’s envoy to the UN, Abukar Osman, told the UN Security Council.

Osman dubbed the Emirates’ decision to inter into agreement with a Somali region without the knowledge and consent of the country’s national government as “ blatant violations.”

Somalia has also threatened to “take the necessary measures to deal with them, deriving from its primary responsibility to defend the inviolability of the sovereignty and unity of Somalia in accordance with the Somali Constitution and international law and covenants.”

But, in an interview with The Associated Press news agency, the northwestern region’s leader President Muse Bihi Abdi argued that the reason why he signed the military deal was to get a military protection from a strong ally.

“Our government is not so strong and our zone needs to be protected,” he said. “I think we need a friendly country to have a cooperation with military security, we need it.”

Since 1991, the northwestern region has been agitating for a separation from the rest of Somalia, but no country has so far officially and fully recognized it.