A plane from Kenya that was carrying humanitarian medical supplies to help aid the coronavirus pandemic in Eastern Africa was shot down by the Ethiopian Army earlier this week.

The plane crashed into flames near the airport in Bardale, which is located in a southwestern part of Somalia, which is located around 180 miles from the capital of Mogadishu on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

BBC said that the plane may have been shot down by the Ethiopian military thinking that the plane was on a suicide mission.

According to a report by Al-Jazeera, the Ethiopian soldiers that fired upon the plane said that they reacted because the plane was flying really low.

The Ethiopian army said:

Because of lack of communication and awareness, the aircraft was shot down. The incident … will require mutual collaborative investigation team from Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya to further understand the truth.

The airplane, which belonged to the African Express Plane, was carrying humanitarian and medical supplies to help in the coronavirus pandemic.

6 people on board the plane, which includes 2 Kenyans and 4 Somali nationals, were killed in the car crash.

The incident comes during the increasing tension between Ethiopia and Kenya.

Abdulahi Isack, a police official, said:

The aircraft was about to land at the Bardale airstrip when it crashed and burst into flames. It had flown from Mogadishu to Baidoa and then continued to Bardale town before crashing.

The Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority does not know the exact time of the crash, but says it lost contact with the plane around 16:20 local time last Monday.

The African Express Airways will send a team to help investigate the crash that is believed to have been a result shooting down the plane.