Clan Elders in Somalia have Appealed to Islamists to Allow Mogadishu Airport to Reopen

More than 100 of Somalia’s clan elders have sent an appeal to the Al Shabaab, the hard line Islamists faction which had been linked to Al-Qaida, to reopen the international airport that has not been functioning since September 16, after a long meeting held by the elders on Wednesday morning.

Members of the Hawiye clan, one of the four main clans in Somalia, jointly urged Al Shabaab to rescind their decision to ban use of the international airport.

“We kindly request from Al-Shabaab leadership to allow people to use the airport,” Mo’alim Hassan Abdi Nour, an elder of the Hawiye clan told reporters during a press conference. “The order to close the airport did not affect the targeted group,” he added.

The Islamist group, Al-Shabaab told airline representatives to stop flights from Mogadishu airport from 16 September, saying that the airport was an instrument of the Ethiopian military occupation of Somali.

Somalia had been plunged into anarchy after the overthrow of former President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, when warlords used their clan-based militias to remove Barre only to turn on each other for power, leading to constant inter-clan war which left thousands killed and millions displaced.

Source African Press Agency

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