Dozens feared dead as militants storm African Union army base in Somalia

The 54-member African Union has, since 2007, organized a peacekeeping force to stabilize Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since a civil war and a 1991 overthrow.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants have attacked an African Union peacekeepers base in southern Somalia, with the group claiming to have killed dozens of soldiers. The Shabaab frequently exaggerates the number of troops they kill, while AMISOM rarely gives exact tolls.

Hussein said: “They first rammed a suicide vehicle bomb into the gate of the Kenyan forces base in El-Adde, about 93 kilometers from the Kenyan border”. Kenya’s Defence Ministry said both sides suffered casualties but said numbers were not confirmed. The Kenyan Defence Force initially denied that its base had been attacked, saying a nearby Somali military base had been stormed and its soldiers had been deployed to help counter the attack.

But speaking on Radio Andalus, a pro-militant station that broadcasts via the Internet in the capital, Mogadishu, Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab, said the militants had taken over the Kenyan camp and killed 61 soldiers.

The two military bases – one for Somali troops and the other for AU soldiers – neighbour each other on the outskirts of el-Ade, which is in Gedo region, about 380km (240 miles) west of Mogadishu.

“Shabab attacked the SNA camp, which is in close proximity to the KDF camp at El-Adde”, Obonyo said.

Last September, the group’s fighters stormed a Ugandan Amisom base in Janale district, 80 kilometres south-west of Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region. A shopkeeper in the town said soldiers from the African Union force, known as AMISOM, appeared to have left the town.

“We don’t know about the casualties, but people who went there saw many dead bodies strewn around”, he said.

The group, which has ties with al-Qaida, has also carried out many deadly attacks in Kenya.

In April 2015, the militant group staged an attack on a university in Garissa, killing 148 people.