Dubai logistics company to run Mogadishu airport
Thursday 30 December 2010 8:02 AM
MOGADISHU - Dubai-based SKA Air & Logistics has signed a contract with Somalia's transitional government to take over the running of Mogadishu international airport, an SKA official said Tuesday.
"We have not formally taken over at this stage but in few weeks' time we will be taking over management of the airport," a company manager who asked not to be identified said.
The 10-year contract covers "management of the terminals, security, screening and also passenger security," he said, without disclosing any financial details.
Several SKA staff members are already present at Mogadishu airport where they have started training Somali personnel.
"We have started training local staff while we wait for our equipment to arrive," the manager explained.
SKA, which operates airports in Iraq and Afghanistan and whose motto is "doing difficult jobs in difficult places", was approached by the Somali government for the job, he said.
The prospect of working in the Horn of Africa country, which has had no functioning central administration since 1991 is "challenging for the time being but as we go along hopefully things will improve."
Aden Adde airport, on the seafront in the part of Mogadishu controlled by the government, is secured by troops from the African Union force AMISOM, who have their main base there.
Several companies, operating within Somalia and elsewhere in the region, operate flights every day.
Islamist rebels have on occasion fired mortars at the airport, notably when government officials and President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed have been flying in and out.
SKA, which also has operations in the United Arab Emirates, in Kuwait and elsewhere in Africa, is also in the running for a contract to manage Mogadishu sea port, sources said.
The Somali government last week admitted the existence of another contract -- signed by the previous cabinet -- with private security company Saracen International notably to train body guards. A Gulf state that has asked not to be named is picking up the bill.
Meanwhile Somali lawmakers on Monday proposed a motion demanding the government explain the foreign deals, according to parliamentarian Mohamed Dhere.
"Parliament will debate the secret deals the government struck with foreign companies including SKA and Saracen International, and government will have to explain its actions," Dhere told AFP, adding the debate should start in the coming days.
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