Cabays Media – Reports coming from Somalia’s capital, Moqadishu say the Somalian Aviation Authority has sent a number of repeated letters to the UN aviation authority @icao and requested a mediation between them & the Somaliland Aviation Authority.

This comes after Somalia is no longer the sole controller of the MQA FIR for the Somalia-Somaliland airspace and Somaliland has taken over controlling its airspace and that of Somalia.

Somalia initially has dismissed the news of Somaliland taking over the Mogadishu FIR and communicating with the flights in its airspace and threatened of taking action against Somaliland if does so.

However it became clear that Somaliland has the same capability of the Mogadishu authority and Somalia cannot take any action that can stop Somaliland from running its airspace.

Somaliland’s Aviation chief, Omar Sayid who spoke to the media in Somaliland has confirmed that SL Aviation Authority are now dealing with all flights using their airspace and Somalia is no longer the only one that is in charge.

“We have every right to control our airspace and we have the full capability to operate as normal. More and more flights are connecting to Hargeisa air tower than Mogadishu” He told a local a media reporter.

Reports saying the letters Mogadishu based authority has sent to the ICAO for intervening are indicating the failure of the Villa Somalia Government to run the airspace control as it claims. Contradicting statements from Somalia aviation authority are also indicate the lack of credibility and misleading the World on the airspace issue.

Reports also say ICAO has sent communications it’s asking Somalia Gov to respond a number of questions before it tries to bring to the table Somalia and Somaliland for renegotiations.

The questions ICOA wants answers from Somalia are reported of been crucial for its decision whether to let Somalia to continue to operate as a sole controller of Somalia-Somaliland airspace or to return it under its management in Kenya as it has done with UN mandate before.

The questions ICOA has sent to Somalia are reported as:

1. Who controls the two Somali airports designated for international emergency landing?
2. Who is the second controller of Mogadishu FIR?
3. Why it has refused an ambulance to land in Hargeisa Airport?

Somalia’s aviation authority has yet to respond to these questions.

Somalia had an agreement it entered with Somaliland in 2015 which made possible the UN’s International Aviation Organisation to hand over to Somalia’s Federal Government after more than twenty odd years of the UN organization was in charge.

The hand over process of the airspace and relocation from the ICAO to Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has been completed in July 2018 after it agreed to negotiate directly with Somaliland Gov on how they will share the revenue and the responsibility. But Somalia abandoned all the agreements with Somaliland and rejected to hear Somaliland’s concerns.

This has led Somaliland to take serious action for controlling its airspace.

Follow