The U.S. military says it is investigating what caused an army drone to crash in southern Somalia this week.
The military’s Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, confirmed the incident in a post Friday on social media platform X.
“A U.S. Army operated MQ-1C crashed in southern Somalia at approximately 12:40 PM local on Nov. 5,” AFRICOM said. “An investigation is ongoing, although the crash does not appear to be the result of any attempt to shoot down the aircraft.”
AFRICOM said it will release more information as it becomes available.
AFRICOM did not disclose the exact location of the crash, but a Somali official said he was told a drone crashed in an area controlled by the al-Shabab militant group.
Mohamed Ibrahim Barre, the governor of Lower Shabelle, told the VOA Horn of Africa Service that the drone crashed north of Farsoley village, in Lower Shabelle, about 85 kilometers west of Mogadishu. Barre said he did not know who the drone belongs to.
The U.S. military has conducted surveillance and airstrikes against al-Shabab for years in support of successive Somali administrations.
In addition, the U.S. also trains an elite Somali commando unit known as Danab, or lightning. Earlier this year, U.S. and Somalia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of up to five military bases for the Danab Brigade, in a project valued at over $100 million.
This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.
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