Earlier this month, authorities at Mogadishu’s international airport seized six disassembled drones. Turkish pressure forced Somali authorities to release the Turkish engineers who accompanied the shipment. Those engineers said the drones were for agricultural purposes.
This seems unlikely. First, the drones cost $780,000, far out of range of any Somali farmer. Second, the Turkish export licenses show the drones have a 3-4-hour flight endurance and payload capacity that suggests a military rather than agricultural role.
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