Ukraine's foreign affairs ministry says four of its citizens are among those captured by al-Shabab militants in Somalia after their helicopter that was contracted by the United Nations made an emergency landing in territory controlled by the rebels.
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Officials say the helicopter went down on Wednesday because of engine failure and was then attacked by al-Shabab fighters who killed one person and abducted the other passengers.
"Our citizens were members of the helicopter crew of the United Nations Mission in Somalia that crashed," Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign affairs ministry, said in a Facebook post.
The helicopter belongs to a Ukrainian private company which executed a contract for transport on the order of the United Nations, he said.
Along with the Ukrainians, there were also five foreigners on board, Nikolenko said, without giving their citizenship.
An aviation official said earlier this week that medical professionals and soldiers were on board the helicopter that had been headed to Wisil town for a medical evacuation when it was forced to land in a village in Galmadug on Wednesday.
The minister of internal security of Galmudug state in central Somalia, Mohamed Abdi Aden Gaboobe, told the Associated Press by phone on Thursday that the helicopter made the landing because of engine failure in Xindheere village.
He said that six foreigners and one Somali citizen were on board and one was shot dead while trying to escape.
One was missing.
Different sources give varying figures for the number of occupants in the helicopter, ranging between seven and nine.
The AP has not been able to verify the exact number of people on board the helicopter.
The extremists then burnt the helicopter after confiscating what they thought was important, the Galmudug minister said.
Al-Shabab has been blamed for the attack but the group has not claimed responsibility.
Separately, the United Nations in Somalia strongly condemned a mortar attack that al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for, in which a member of the UN Guard Unit was killed on Thursday.
A number of mortar rounds landed inside the Aden Adde International Airport area, in which the UN compound is located, on Thursday night, according to a statement from the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, or UNSOM.
The mortar rounds also damaged infrastructure, the statement added.
Al-Shabab has intensified attacks on Somali military bases in recent months after it lost control of some territory in rural areas during a military offensive that followed the Somali president's call for "total war" against the fighters.
Australian Associated Press
