KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni stated late on Saturday there had been casualties throughout an assault by Somalia’s Islamist group al Shabaab on a navy base manned by Ugandan peacekeepers within the Horn of African nation on Friday.
Museveni didn’t say what number of troopers had been killed or wounded nevertheless it was the primary official admission of losses within the assault among the many Ugandan troops who’re serving within the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
“Condolences to the nation and the households of those that died,” Museveni stated in a press release, including the nation’s navy had arrange a panel to research what occurred.
Al Shabaab has since 2006 has been preventing to topple Somalia’s Western-backed authorities and set up its personal rule primarily based on a strict interpretation of Islamic regulation.
Museveni stated throughout the assault “a number of the troopers there didn’t carry out as anticipated and panicked, which disorganized them and the al Shabaab took benefit of that to overrun the bottom and destroy a number of the tools.”
The assailants numbered about 800 and throughout the assault the Ugandan troops had been pressured to withdraw to a close-by base, about 9 kilometres away, he stated.
Al Shabaab fighters focused the bottom early on Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Al Shabaab stated in a press release on the time that it had carried out suicide bomb assaults and killed 137 troopers on the base.
There was no fast official affirmation of the casualties. Al Shabaab tends to offer casualty figures in assaults that differ from these issued by the authorities.
ATMIS has thus far not stated what number of troops had been killed or wounded within the assault.
The peacekeeping mission has been in Somalia since 2007 and helps to defend Somalia’s central authorities towards the Islamists.
(This story has been refiled to alter the day to late Saturday, from Sunday, in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; modifying by Jane Merriman)
