Al Shabab attack African Union army base in Somalia

Al Shabab terrorists have attacked a military base housing Ugandan forces of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the AU force said, without specifying if there were any casualties.

The army base in Bulo Marer, 120 kilometres southwest of the capital Mogadishu "came under Al Shabab attack," the AU force known as the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said in a statement on Facebook and Twitter on Friday.

"ATMIS forces are currently assessing the security situation," it said, without giving details.

The attack targeted Ugandan soldiers stationed in Somalia as part of ATMIS, Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces spokesman Felix Kulayigye said in a statement, adding they were "cross-checking" details.

The 20,000-strong ATMIS force has a more offensive remit than its predecessor, known as the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).

The force is drawn from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, with troops deployed in southern and central Somalia.

Its goal is to hand over security responsibilities to Somalia's army and police by 2024.

Al Shabab claimed responsibility for Friday's attack via its communication channels, claiming it had overrun the base.

But Somali military commander Mohamed Yerow Hassan said the attackers had been repelled and the "situation is back to normal now."

"A suicide bomber drove a vehicle with explosives targeting the ATMIS base and then gunfire broke out," Hassan told AFP by telephone.

"The terrorists were forced to retreat and flee."

Attacks on army bases in isolated parts of Somalia are difficult to independently verify.

Al Shabab is known to exaggerate claims of battlefield gains in propaganda, while the governments of nations contributing troops to the AU force rarely confirm casualties.

' All-out-war '

Last year, Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched an "all-out war" on Al Shabab, rallying Somalis to help flush out members of the terror group he described as "bedbugs".

In recent months, the army and militias known as "macawisley" have retaken swathes of territory in the centre of the troubled country in operations backed by ATMIS and US air strikes.

The US Africa Command on Monday said it had carried out a strike the weekend prior in Jilib in Somalia's south and that initial assessments indicated no civilians were harmed.

Despite the gains by the pro-government forces, the group has continued to strike with lethal force against civilian and military targets.

In the deadliest Al Shabab attack since the offensive was launched last year, 121 people were killed in October by two car bombings at the education ministry in Mogadishu.

In a report to the UN Security Council in February, UN chief Antonio Guterres said that 2022 was the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely as a result of Al Shabab attacks.