By Halima Athumani
MOGADISHU, Somalia
The Al-Shabaab militant group has retaken two towns in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region following the withdrawal of Somali government troops and African Union (AU) forces, local residents reported on Saturday.
According to residents of the towns of Ayl Slende and Jontuare, forces from the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali government troops pulled out of the two towns late Friday night, moving in the direction of the port city of Merca.
Speaking by phone to Anadolu Agency, local witnesses said the withdrawals were not accompanied by any armed clashes.
As of Saturday morning, they said, Al-Shabaab militants had assumed control of the towns, where they urged local residents to “support the Mujahideen in liberating the country from the invaders” – a reference to the departing government forces and AMISOM troops.
In a Saturday press statement, Abdel-Fattah Abdullah, a government official in the Lower Shabelle region, described the moves as a “tactical withdrawal”.
The twin retreats come four days after Al-Shabaab militants used a car bomb to attack the Janaale military base in the Lower Shabelle region, which usually accommodates dozens of Ugandan AMISOM troops.
While Al-Shabaab says as many as 80 AMISOM troops were killed in the attack, AMISOM officials and Ugandan military spokesman put the death toll at no more than 12.
Ugandan resolve
Following Tuesday’s car-bomb attack, the Ugandan army voiced its resolve to maintain troops in violence-prone Somalia as part of AMISOM.
“Those people carrying out cowardly activities think they can ambush our people and scare us from the area of operation [Somalia],” Maj.-Gen. Sam Turyagenda, commander of the Ugandan air force, said Thursday.
“But we’re not going anywhere,” he added.
While receiving the bodies of Ugandan troops killed in the assault, the commander noted that, as members of AMISOM, the slain soldiers had been “doing United Nations work” when they were killed.
Although initial reports said as many as 50 troops had been killed, and while Al-Shabaab has put the death toll at 80, Ugandan army spokesman Lt.-Col. Paddy Ankunda said only 12 soldiers had lost their lives.
Also speaking on Thursday, Ugandan Chief-of-Staff for Land Forces Brigadier Leopold Kyanda stressed that the Ugandan army “will continue to stand with the people of Somalia in the collective effort to rid Somalia – and the entire region – of terrorism."
AMISOM personnel assumed control of the Janaale base in February of 2013.
In recent years, AMISOM forces – fighting alongside Somali government troops – have driven Al-Shabaab from Somali capital Mogadishu, the towns of Afgooye, Baidoa and Jowhar, and the port towns of Merca and Barawe.
The Ugandan army has 6,223 personnel serving as part of the 22,000-strong African Union mission, which is comprised of troops drawn from Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia – as well as Uganda – who are currently deployed in six sectors across south and central Somalia.
AMISOM was established by the African Union Peace and Security Council in January 2007. One month later, the UN Security Council approved the mission's mandate, which, among other things, includes supporting Somalia’s transitional government, training Somali security forces and combating Al-Shabaab.
