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Only about half of the 50 or soaircraft movements per day atMogadishus Aden Adde

International Airport are commercialtransport services.

The other half are mostly operated by

the United Nations (UN) and its myriadrelated agencies, providing a mixture ofhumanitarian airlifts; military supportservices for the African Union Mission toSomalia (AMISOM), the multinationalforce battling Al Shabaab; and diplomaticor other VIP transportation flights.

It is a complex web of operations thathinges on various overlappingpartnerships, so the number of entitiesand corresponding acronyms can getoverwhelming.

On the humanitarian side, theUnited Nations Humanitarian AirService (UNHAS) deploys

seven fixed-wing aircraft inSomalia and Kenya,supporting the activities ofthe World Food Programme(WFP) and more than 130other charitableorganisations. Theyspecialise in transportingfood, medical supplies and aidworkers providing a lifeline forSomalis in remote rural areas andrefugee camps.

But the UN is by no means restricted tohumanitarian activities in the Horn ofAfrica country. As part of broaderinternational efforts to end Somaliastwo-decade-long civil war, the globalbody also has a hand in nation-buildingon the military and political fronts.

Thus the United Nations AssistanceMission in Somalia (UNSOM) wasestablished in 2013, with a mandate ofhelping Somalias new federalgovernment along the path to nationalelections. Even before then, in 2009, theUnited Nations Support Office forAMISOM (UNSOA) was set up as a fieldsupport operation to help the AfricanUnion develop its peace enforcementcapacity, in turn strengthening the Somali

national armed forces.With all these agencies and individualsdepending on UN logistics, it is impossibleto overstate the critical role played by theglobal body in rehabilitating Somalia.

Commentators who casually dismissthe UN as a talking shop have,evidently, never visited Mogadishu.

But with its fingers in so many pies, theintergovernmental organisation is forced tomaintain and operate a daunting variety ofaircraft at the Somali capital. ErnestManzano, the UNs aviation chief inMogadishu, is the man tasked with ensuringthe fleet runs as smoothly as possible.

The UN model can be very complexwhen it comes to aviation operations, headmitted. We follow the InternationalCivil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)standards from the higher hierarchy; thenwe go down to the level of thegovernment or Somalia Civil AviationAuthority (SCAMA); and then we take itdown to our mission-specific standardoperating procedures.

So there are three layers of hierarchy asfar as quality assurance, technicalcompliance and operations that we follow.

Leaving aside UNHASs humanitarianfleet, UNSOA deploys between 15 and 25

aircraft. Precise numbers are notdisclosed for security reasons, but itsfixed-wing fleet includes Lockheed C-130s, Bombardier Dash 8s and CessnaCitation jets; while its rotorcraft fleetfeatures Mil Mi-8s and Kawasaki BK117s. All the aircraft are leased fromhighly specialised regional partners suchas Everett Aviation and DAC Aviation.

Medical evacuations (medevacs), troopdeployments, and resupply missionsmake up the lions share of aircraftmovements by UNSOA.

The dangers facing such flights wereunderscored in August 2014, when a Mi-8 leased from Russias UTair to the UNMission in South Sudan (UNMISS) wasshot down by surface-to-air fire. Threepeople died. Despite occurring welloutside Somali territory in a separateconflict zone, the incident was a remindethat UN-marked aircraft are consideredlegitimate targets by many warlords ineast Africa.

Indeed, Mogadishu has its own bitterexperiences of helicopter tragedies. Theinfamous shooting down of two Sikorsky

PEACE WORK

Martin Riversfinds that aviation is the glue that keeps shared military,

humanitarian and political frameworks in place as the United Nations

and the African Union join together to rehabilitate the Somali capital.

UNSOA

has developedwhat Manzano

describes as the goldstandard of operationalrisk management (ORM)

for each and everyflight.

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UH-60 Black Hawks in October 1993claimed 18 American lives. Hundredsmore Somalis civilians as well ascombatants were killed in the ensuingground battle.

With the spectre of such attacks neverfar from its mind, UNSOA has developedwhat Manzano describes as the goldstandard of operational risk management(ORM) for each and every flight.

AMISOM is fully integrated with theUN, he explained. Its always been ahigh-risk mission for us, so wevedeveloped a very robust operation whenit comes to ORM.

We have a specific way of looking at

risks or threats, and mitigating them.Depending on the [risk] factor, you havedifferent things that you can do. We useour matrix, called a case model, which isused by many different militaries in theworld, to guide us through the [riskassessment] process. We come up with aweighted number, and based on thatnumber the decision is made.

Whenever a request for an aircraft isreceived, the UNs aviation planningoffice immediately initiates the ORMprotocol.

It begins by profiling basic parameters:

the passenger and cargo requirements;the broad origin and destinationassessments; and the expected ground-time, especially if overnight.

The matrix then fine-tunes its riskassessment with ever-more precisevariables: what weather conditions areforecast; how recently the route wasoperated; how reliable the intelligencesources are; whether the landing strip isunder military or civilian control; and whattype of aircraft is best suited to the job.

Based on all these inputs, the office

quickly but objectively decides whetherthe flight can go ahead and, if not, whowould need to issue the finalauthorisation.

At the working level, our staff canmake the go/no-go decision, Manzanonoted. It doesnt have to go very high upin the ladder. What we like to do is keepthe guys with the most knowledge makingthe day-to-day decisions, instead ofpassing it on to our senior management,who have more of a strategic view of thewhole entire operation.

With any delays potentially costing

lives, the time between receiving therequest and getting airborne should bearound 15 minutes.

Yesterday we got a call at 3:45 that asoldier was wounded in Merca, herecalled. By 4 oclock engines were on, theORM was conducted, and it was deemedsafe. Obviously it was high-risk, but it wasdeemed that we can mitigate the risk.

In that incident, a BK 117 wasdespatched with an aviation securityofficer and combat paramedic on board.It reached the helicopter landing site secured by air liaison officers on theground within half an hour. The patientwas immediately flown back toMogadishu and is now recovering inhospital. All the air crew are ex-military, Manzano added. These guyshave been in Afghanistan, Iraq,Colombia; theyve been around, theyknow how to manage the risk level.

While UNSOAs time-sensitive flightsare frequently a matter of life or death,deployments on behalf of UNSOM or anyaffiliate of the UN are more likely toinvolve VIP transportation.

Diplomats, dignitariesand various UN member-state stakeholders are all

Continued

on Page 74

Ernest Manzano:

Its always been ahigh-risk mission forus, so wevedeveloped a veryrobust operation.

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When Somalias former ruling Islamic Courts Union lost control ofthe country in 2006 beaten back by Ethiopian troops and forcesloyal to the transitional government the group splintered intovarious factions.

The largest of these, Al Shabaab, quickly gained notoriety for itsmilitary prowess and radical interpretation of Sharia law.

At the height of its power in 2010, Al Shabaab controlled most ofcentral and southern Somalia. As well as imposing the harshest ofliving standards on its subjects, it amassed enviable wealth throughillicit activities such as piracy, ivory hunting and charcoal harvesting.

Moreover, having mastered the art of asymmetric warfare, AlShabaab began exporting terrorism to Kenya, Uganda and Djiboutiwith a wave of bombings, shootings and knife attacks. Itsinternational agenda was cemented in February 2012, when aformal merger with Al Qaeda was announced.

But all these activities came against a backdrop of steady militarysuccesses by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the22,000-strong multinational force sent to Somalia to support thetransitional government.

Four years ago, we could not even move 10km out ofMogadishu, recalled Brigadier General Dick Olum, the commanderof AMISOMs Ugandan contingent. Then we started pushing themout until we reached Mahaday. We pushed them up to Afgooye, and

eventually up to Baidoa. We started southwards, pushing them out ofall these areas bit by bit. By last year, we were already in Merca. InFebruary, we had already pushed them past Shalambood, Qoryoley.

Late 2014 brought two further victories: the targeted killing of AlShabaabs leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in an American dronestrike; and AMISOMs liberation of Barawe, a strategic port town250km south of Mogadishu.

The territory under Al Shabaab control is now limited to ruraldistricts plus a handful of small towns like Dinsoor and Jilib. But,while the jihadists are on the back foot, they are far from a spentforce. Bombings still rock Mogadishu on a weekly basis and mass-casualty attacks across the Kenyan border are growing in frequency.

Terrorism is an international problem, Olum said, when askedabout the groups continued potency. That is why the whole worldis watching Somalia.

free to request transportation fromUNSOM.

Theres a lot of visitors to Mogadishubecause it is now getting safer and safer,so more countries want to be part of it,

Manzano affirmed. Our mode oftransportation seems to be the mostsecure for the time being, so they like tojump on our aircraft and come and visitMog once in a while.

These VIP services, together with allcommercial flights at Mogadishu, rely onwatertight airport security to ensurepassenger safety.

Although the UN has an air terminal unittasked with upgrading facilities at AdenAdde Airport, security itself is provided byAMISOM. Troops from six differentnations make up the multinational force Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone,

Kenya and Ethiopia and it is the 6,000-strong Ugandan contingent that has overallresponsibility for securing Mogadishu,including its critical airport, sea port andState House.

Anybody with anything to say aboutthose three areas must consult withUganda, and the Ugandan Governmentimmediately gets involved, explainedBrigadier General Dick Olum, thecommander of AMISOMs Ugandancontingent. The airport is our exit route,

so anybody coming to play around thereis playing with our lives.Several sub-sectors of AMISOMs

military component are instrumental insecuring the land, sea and sky around theairport.

The air defence sub-component is themost obvious contributor. AMISOM doesnot have overall control of Somaliairspace, so its military air radar systeminstead zeros in on the navigationalwaypoints used by commercial andmilitary aircraft when landing or takingoff at the airport. These corridors are thenprotected with strategically located anti-aircraft machine guns and missiles, as well

as surveillance by Ugandan drones,UNSOA helicopters, and boat patrols.

Each morning, before commercialflights get under way, airborne operativessurvey the whole coastline up to 20nautical miles southwards. Marines alsocriss-cross the waters around Lido Beach immediately adjacent to the runway throughout the day, fanning out for aradius of 12 nautical miles.

Its a huge concern for us that nothingshould ever, god forbid, happen to anyairline, Olum stressed. Thats what wefight day and night to ensure. We dont

Al Shabaab on the run sleep because of that. If one single aircrafgets a problem, then it is AMISOM thatwill be asked questions.

The missions airport humanintelligence sub-component also plays apivotal role in securing Mogadishus maingateway.

As well as scrutinising passenger detailsfor all incoming and outbound flights,

AMISOM collates intelligence frommultiple sources to build up an evolvingthreat profile at the airport. This includesnot only operational intelligence and signalsintelligence (often referred to as terroristchatter), but also hearsay intelligencepassed on from Somali partners.

Any plan to come and attack aviationin Mogadishu, to some extent, will havereached us, Olum confidently asserted.AMISOM has superior intelligence inthis country.

While his troops have so far kept onestep ahead of Al Shabaab, Olum believessurface-to-air fire remains a huge threatin Mogadishu. He is, therefore, refusing

commercial airlines permission toapproach Aden Adde Airport over thecity, instead directing them over theIndian Ocean. This single direction ofoperation sometimes forces pilots to landwith high tailwinds, but a re-think is noton the agenda.

At less than 5,000 metres that aircraftcan be put down by a machine gun, thecommander said pointedly. Not even amissile, just a machine gun. Fighting thewind and fighting Al Shabaab are twodifferent things the most dangerous isAl Shabaab.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 73 Its a huge concern forus that nothing shouldever, God forbid, happen

to any airline.BRIGADIER GENERAL DICK OLUM

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