Kenya has suspended flights to and from Somalia just days after the latter announced diplomatic ties between the two countries had been normalized after months of tension, reported The EastAfrican.
On Tuesday, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said commercial flights arriving from or departing to Somalia would be suspended for three months.
“All flights between Kenya and Somalia are suspended except medevac [medical evacuation] flights and United Nations flights on humanitarian missions only,” the KCAA said.
The aviation board did not give any reason for the suspension but suggested there had been a security directive from the government to restrict air traffic between the two countries. The suspension comes a day after Somalia said shipments of khat from Kenya remained on hold.
In an interview with AFP news agency, KCAA director-general Gilbert Kibe said the suspension was a decision by the government.
Notably, flights from Somalia passing through the Kenyan airspace to another destination will be exempted. Also exempted are military flights which are not within the jurisdiction of the KCAA.
The announcement was made just as Somalia’s President Mohamed Farmaajo was flying over Kenya to Uganda for the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni for the fifth term, slated for Wednesday, May 12.
In December, Mogadishu had cut off diplomatic ties after Nairobi hosted the political leadership of Somaliland, a breakaway state not recognized by Somalia’s central government.
Somalia has long been miffed over what it calls Kenya’s meddling in regions over its border. Nairobi, on the other hand, has continued to accuse Mogadishu of using it as a scapegoat for its own political problems.
The two countries have also engaged in a long-running territorial dispute over a stretch of the Indian Ocean, claimed by both nations, believed to hold valuable deposits of oil and gas, and have sought international arbitration over the matter. The maritime boundary dispute is awaiting a verdict at the International Court of Justice.
