Casualties feared as Al Shabaab raids AU base

MOGADISHU: Heavily armed Al Shabaab militants stormed an African Union (AU) base in Somalia on Tuesday, triggering a fierce firefight that caused an unknown number of casualties, a local military commander and witnesses said.

AU forces dispatched helicopter gunships ater the pre-dawn car bomb and gun atack on a camp housing Burundian peacekeepers near Ceel Baraf, a village about 160 kilometres northeast of the capital Mogadishu, the sources said.

“There was heavy fighting and casualties inflicted on both sides, but we don’t have more details about this incident so far,” local military commander Mohamed Ali told reporters by phone.

“They launched the atack with a car bomb blast before a heavy exchange of gunfire broke out,” he added.

Al Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s fragile central government for more than a decade, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the assault.

The militants said they had taken control of the camp killing 59 African Union soldiers and injuring dozens more.

The claim could not be verified and there was no immediate comment from the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) or central government officials.

“Al Shabaab gunmen stormed the camp early morning, there were heavy blasts and exchanges of machinegun fire. The Burundians vacated the camp and entered Ceel Baraf village before helicopters arrived providing aerial support,” said one witness, local resident Weliyow Maalim.

“The helicopters fired missiles and heavy machineguns, we saw smoke rising over the camp but we don’t know about the situation exactly,” said another witness, Ahmed Adan.

In September 2015, at least 50 African Union troops were reported by Western military sources to have been killed when Al Shabaab fighters overran a military base in Janale, southwest of Mogadishu.

In October 2011, Al Shabaab claimed to have killed more than 70 Burundian peacekeepers in batle and laid out dozens of bodies in military uniform in one of their strongholds outside Mogadishu.