Fighters from #Somalia’s al Shabaab group attacked a military base on the outskirts of a town in the center of the country, leading to at least 17 deaths, a resident says.https://t.co/ZwBqXbVoFU
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) May 30, 2023
The attack on Masagawa, about 300 km (190 miles) north of Mogadishu, came days after al-Shabaab
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...attacked a base housing Ugandan forces from an African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peacekeeping mission in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital.
"I have seen 17 dead people including the attackers and the attacked. The fighting has moved into the forest. The town is calm now and under government control," Hussein Nur, a resident of Masagawa, told Rooters by phone.
Captain Abdullahi Mohammed, a military officer in Masagawa, confirmed the attack and said 12 al-Shabaab fighters had died, but he did not know how many troops were dead.
"Fierce fighting went on for hours on the edge of the town. So far, I know we lost soldiers but I have no exact figure. We repulsed al-Shabaab and now we are pursuing them in the forest,"Mohammed told Rooters.
The Somalia National Army said on Twitter it had prevented an attack on the town itself, and killed al-Shabaab fighters, but did not say how many.
Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab has been fighting since 2006 to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. It has launched significant attacks against hotels, military bases and government establishments in despite a relatively successful government push back.
The group said in a statement it had killed 73 soldiers in the attack, targeting those who had returned from training in Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
Al-Shabaab tends to give casualty figures in attacks that differ from those issued by the authorities.