Al-Shabaab raids Kenyan troops' bases in southern Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants have yet again raided a military base in Somalia, with a surging number of such cases likely to elicit a sharp response from the African Union Mission Forces in the Horn of Africa nation, who have been leading operations against the militants for almost two decades.

Preliminary reports intimate that the Al-Shabaab militants raided a Kenya Defense Forces [KDF] Forward Operating Bases in Abdalla Birole and Taabta which are located in Lower Jubba, a region that has struggled to counter the insurgency, despite tremendous efforts to contain them.

The two Forward Operating Bases are critical in the operations of KDF, which joined AMISOM in 2012, a year after invading Somalia. The Kenyan military has several bases in the Horn of Africa nation, whose headquarters are based in Dhobley and Kismayo, both in the southern part of Somalia.

Sources said that both sides exchanged heavy artillery and bombs and gunfire rented air for the better part of Sunday, but until now, neither Al-Shabaab nor KDF is yet to issue a statement with regard to the incident. The fighting, sources added, lasted for several hours before calmness was restored.

According to the reports, the militants tried to storm into the bases simultaneously for a twin attack but were overpowered by hawk-eyed KDF troops manning the bases. Although the number of casualties remains sketchy, the militants are said to have been overwhelmed by a strong KDF team.

The attack comes barely three months after top KDF commanders visited the two FOBs. In May, Chief of Defense Forces Gen. Robert Kibochi toured Somalia, a trip which would be followed by that of Kenya Army Commander Lieutenant General Walter Raria, who toured the country in July.

Sunday's raid was the second in a KDF base this year in Somalia, a country struggling with stability and security. Early this year, the militants were overpowered yet again by KDF when they raided two Jubaland security bases in Bilis Qoqani and Dhobley, just near the KDF bases.

The Al-Shabaab has been targeting KDF bases in as many years and is on record for successfully raiding the army camps. In 2016, the militants killed over 200 soldiers at the El-Adde army base within the fragile Gedo region, which remains the worst single attack against the Kenyan forces in Somalia.

A year later, over 70 KDF soldiers would die in the Kulbiyow army base after the militants succeeded in raiding, further raising questions about the army's alertness in Somalia. But since then, multiple attacks have been successfully thwarted with the KDF killing hundreds of the Al-Shabaab militants.

It's not only KDF bases that are targeted by the militants in their cowardly attacks. It's just last month when a US outpost in Janay Abdalla was raided by the militants, in an attack which left two Danab soldiers dead and a US serviceman critically injured.

Also, the KDF team has been struggling with criticism from their counterparts in the Somali National Army [SNA] who accuse them of violating the rights of people, especially in Jubaland. For instance, the two sides clashed in Balad-Hawo town in Gedo after it emerged that KDF had allegedly abducted three civilians.

Al-Shabaab remains a huge threat to Somalia's quest for stability and democracy according to the Department of Defense. Despite persistent attacks, however, the group has been significantly degraded following multiple security operations across the country.

GAROWE ONLINE