BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/03/2007

Belarus begins evacuation of its citizens from Somalia

MINSK, March 30 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus has begun a rescue operation to evacuate its citizens from Somalia, Belarussian Foreign Ministry's press service said.

A total of ten Belarussians were taken from the Somali capital Mogadisho to the Balidoogle military base airfield Thursday by a convoy of troops of the African Union.

African Union peacekeepers also delivered there the bodies of eleven Belarussians who died March 23 in a crash of the Ilyushin-76 cargo jet belonging to the Belarussian airline Transaviaexport.

At Balidoogle, the Belarussian citizens got aboard a jet of the Russian airline Continental and left for the Persian Gulf.

The jet is expected to make two stopovers for refueling - in Yemen and Oman - and to land in Minsk on the morning of Friday, March 30.

Transaviaexport jets did air haulage in Somalia under the UN Security Council's auspices.

In the first incident involving its jets, an Ilyushin-76 came under fire from the ground while landing at Mogadisho airport March 9. It caught blaze because of shelling but the crew managed to land and no one aboard suffered.

Another Ilyushin-76 was sent on a mission from Minsk to dismantle equipment on the damaged jet. March 23, it took off from the airport on a return flight.

While on the takeoff, the jet also underwent shelling from the ground and then crashed. All the eleven people aboard - seven crewmembers and four engineering staff - died in the accident.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11387222&PageNum=0