Kismayo (WDN) – The Jubbaland State of Somalia has strongly condemned what it described as an “illegal act amounting to air piracy” after accusing Somalia’s federal government of forcibly diverting a civilian passenger aircraft carrying Somali civilians.
In a sharply worded statement issued by the Jubbaland Presidency, authorities said a Maandeeq Air aircraft, flight number 5Y IFY, was intercepted and prevented from continuing its scheduled route from Kismayo to the border town of Dhoobley.
According to Jubbaland officials, the aircraft was ordered to either reroute to Mogadishu or land at Wajir Airport in Kenya — a move the administration described as a dangerous violation of international civil aviation laws and norms governing civilian air travel.
“What happened today was not merely political interference, but an act that directly endangered civilian passengers and undermined the neutrality and safety of civil aviation operations,” the statement said.
Jubbaland accused Somalia’s federal government — whose mandate the regional administration considers expired — of weaponizing Somali airspace for political purposes rather than operating it as a neutral national service accessible to all Somali citizens.
“It is deeply alarming that the federal government is once again using Somalia’s airspace as a political weapon, turning civilian travel and aviation services into tools of coercion and intimidation,” the statement added.
The regional administration warned that such actions risk further escalating already severe political tensions between Mogadishu and Somalia’s federal member states at a time of deepening constitutional and electoral disputes.
The incident has also raised wider concerns within Somalia’s aviation and business sectors, with growing fears that political interference in civilian flights could severely damage confidence in the country’s fragile civil aviation system.
Jubbaland concluded by calling on the International Civil Aviation Organization and other international aviation bodies to urgently investigate what it described as repeated violations against civilian air traffic and the freedom of movement of Somali citizens.
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