File photograph of Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya
Officials have arrested 21 people accused of attempting to
use fake "Covid-free certificates" to travel from Kenya to the United
Arab Emirates.
It came after the UAE issued a visa ban on Kenyans,
allegedly after visitors were found using forged certificates.
The suspects are due to appear in court later on Friday,
according to local media.
Coronavirus cases are rising in Kenya and on Thursday it
tightened restrictions on public gatherings.
Earlier this week, the UAE decided to stop giving visas to
citizens of 13 countries, including Kenya, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria.
The 21 travellers were attempting to fly to Dubai when they
were apprehended at the main airport in Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday.
They are accused of using forged medical documents that
certified they tested negative for coronavirus in advance of travel.
On another recent flight, from Nairobi to Dubai, about 100
Kenyans were reportedly found with similar falsified documents and half later
tested positive at the airport, according to
Kenyan website Nairobi news.
Kenya has recorded 80,102 confirmed cases of coronavirus and
1,427 deaths since the pandemic began. On Thursday a further 780 infections
were reported, according to
the Kenyan health ministry.
New restrictions on public gatherings were introduced on
Thursday. The number of guests allowed to attend weddings has been reduced to
50 and no more than 100 mourners may attend a funeral.
Meanwhile church services are now limited to a maximum of 90
minutes.
Ethiopian media reporting the attack on Aksum airport
A strategically important airport in
Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has become a key battleground between the
opposing forces in the current conflict.
Pro-government accounts say the Ethiopian military controls
Aksum airport - but this does not appear to have prevented the Tigray special
forces mounting an attack and disabling the runway in the past few days.
Yet, with communications from the region largely cut, the
situation was unclear.
We've taken a look at some of the footage put out about the
attack, together with satellite images of the airport, and tried to piece
together a timeline of events.
The battle for Aksum airport
Ethiopian forces captured the airport on 11 November,
according to pro-government social-media accounts.
Until that point, it had been in the hands of the Tigray
regional forces (TPLF).
But control of the airport and the surrounding region was
clearly not settled on that date.
On Thursday, 19 November, the Tigray leader, Debretsion
Gebremichael, told the Reuters news agency Aksum town was still in their hands
- but it is unclear if that included the airport.
"Aksum is with us - but there is an army sent to
control Aksum - but there is a fight," Mr Debretsion said.
On Friday, 20 November, the government announced it had
captured Aksum town but the TPLF had damaged infrastructure in the area.
And on Sunday, 22 November, state media published a video
and images of bricks and rubble on the runway, as well as what appeared to be
trenches dug into the surface, saying the TPLF had attacked "ploughed and
destroyed the airport, which has contributed a lot to the economy and the
people of Aksum".
The Ethiopian government's "fact-check" account also published a video of the damage
To determine
whether these images are genuine, we've looked at satellite imagery, provided
by Planet Labs, from before and after the attack.
This satellite image shows the airport on 19 November, before the attack
On Thursday,
19 November, the runway appeared to be free from rubble or damage.
But the
image captured on Monday, 23 November, shows lines across the airport, which
corroborate the previous day's state-media reports that trenches had been dug
across the runway to prevent planes landing.
This satellite imagery from Monday, 23 November, shows the airport after the attack - both bricks and trenches can be seen
Other
investigations have led to similar findings.
After it was reported the Ethiopian army had gained control
of the airport, pro-government accounts shared images from old stories
unrelated to the conflict, purporting to show Ethiopian military personnel at
the airport.
Old photos of an Ethiopian pilot - unrelated to the current conflict
Similarly,
after Ethiopian media reported the TPLF had damaged the airport, social-media
users began sharing images of the near-total destruction of a terminal
building.
An image from a bombed Libyan airport from 2014 has been wrongly attributed to the attack in northern Ethiopia
But the image being shared was in fact from an attack at a
Libyan airport in 2014.
Human Rights Watch has called for the Ethiopian government
to restore communications in the region.
Why Aksum airport is important
Ethiopia is a vast country and keeping airports operating
for supplies and personnel is important for the national military.
The Aksum region is also important for historical reasons.
Balsillie School of International Affairs director Prof Ann
Fitz-Gerald said: "It's hugely important because other northern airports
at Bahir Dar and Gondar have also been damaged and airport security is crucial
for mobilising troops and keeping physical lines of communication open."
"If regional security forces were not going to have the
airport itself, its tactic would be to disrupt the access to the airport.
"It would've been a last ditch tactic and possibly as
they became threatened."
State-run Ethiopian Airlines is is set to begin construction later this year on what will be one of Africa’s largest airports.
As Africa’s leading airline continues to grow and add new
routes, it will require more space than its current hub, Bole Airport, can
provide.
The new airport — which is set to cost $5 billon — will
be built in Bishoftu, a town southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, and cover
35 square kilometers, said Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde
Gebremariam in an interview with
the state-run Ethiopian News Agency.
“Because Bole Airport is not going to accommodate us; we
have beautiful expansion project, the airport looks very beautiful and very
large but with the growth that we are going every year in about three or four
years we are going to be full,” Gebremariam said.
In 2018, Addis Ababa overtook Dubai as the top transit
hub for long-haul passengers into Africa. In 2019 China funded the expansion of
Bole Airport was, allowing it to accommodate 22 million passengers annually.
Gebremariam has not said how the new airport — which will accommodate 100
million passengers — will be funded.
The continent has been notoriously under-connected by
air, and Ethiopian Airlines is changing that, with flights to more than 60
African cities. The company also owns stakes in
several local airlines based in other countries.
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