A Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Mi-24 helicopter dispatched to the African Union mission in Somalia crashed at Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport on Wednesday 2 July, killing five people and leaving others injured. According to a UPDF statement, the rotorcraft, registered AUO-015, went down about 200 metres east of the airport’s north ramp while conducting a routine combat escort mission. Eight people were aboard at the time of the accident. The aircraft was carrying unspecified munitions and the ensuing detonation after the crash caused extensive damage to nearby structures and wounded three civilians.
The UPDF said the three-man flight deck — pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer — survived but suffered serious injuries, including burns. They were taken to the AUSSOM (African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia) Sector 1 Level II Hospital for treatment. A joint emergency response comprised of Mogadishu International Airport firefighters, United Nations teams and AUSSOM explosive ordnance disposal personnel secured the scene and supported rescue operations. An official investigation has been opened to establish the cause of the incident.
The crash underscores the hazards faced by regional peacekeepers. Ugandan troops form part of an approximately 11,000-strong AU force assisting the Somali government against the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab insurgency, which has waged guerrilla warfare across Somalia for more than two decades. Ahmed Maalim, head of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, told the BBC the helicopter had come down in the airport’s military section after flying in from Baledogle airbase in Lower Shabelle.
The accident adds to a recent pattern of helicopter losses involving the UPDF. In September last year the Ugandan military lost a transport helicopter on a flight from Mogadishu to Baledogle; all four peacekeepers on board survived. A month before the Mogadishu Mi-24 crash, Burundi lost an AB 412 (BAF-1135/AUO-012) deployed with AUSSOM after a technical malfunction forced a landing near Hawadley on 2 June; the aircraft was subsequently abandoned and captured by al-Shabab. Uganda’s record over the past few years also includes two fatal helicopter crashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in October 2022 that killed at least 22 people, and several non-fatal Mi-24 incidents in 2022. In January of last year a recently acquired Mi-28 Havoc crashed in western Uganda en route to operations in the DRC, killing both crew members; weather was cited as a possible factor in that case.
In response to operational strains and recurring maintenance needs, the Ugandan air force has moved to bolster domestic sustainment. Since 2022 it has overhauled its Russia/Soviet-built Mi-series helicopters in-house through a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Nakasongola Air Force Base established by the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) in partnership with Russian firm Pro-Heli International. Commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni, the plant aims to service Mi-17 (Mi-8) and Mi-24 types for Uganda and to compete for work across Africa, including UN missions. The arrangement is intended to reduce ferry costs and turnaround times and to develop local technical capacity; in April 2023 Museveni formally commissioned Uganda’s first locally overhauled Mi-24.
Those investments have not eliminated risk. Operating attack helicopters on peacekeeping missions is inherently dangerous: aircraft fly long hours in austere settings, often near hostile territory and under high operational tempo. The presence of munitions, austere airfields and the threat posed by insurgent activity increase the stakes when mechanical issues or human error occur. For Uganda, each loss invites scrutiny of maintenance practices, pilot training, logistics and the broader decision to deploy rotary-wing assets into contested airspaces.
The Mogadishu crash will also reverberate politically and operationally. It arrives at a sensitive time for regional security and for the AU mission, which depends on partner contributions to sustain pressure on al-Shabab. Investigators face the task of piecing together flight data, maintenance logs and crew testimony to determine whether the crash resulted from mechanical failure, human factors, hostile action or a combination of causes. Until that inquiry is concluded, families of the dead and injured are left to grieve while military planners must weigh immediate operational needs against risk to personnel and equipment.
Whatever the outcome of the investigation, the event underlines the precarious nature of helicopter operations in theatre and the imperative for rigorous maintenance regimes, robust training and resilient support networks — a lesson that applies to all countries supplying aircraft to challenging deployments across the region.