Kenyan troops repulse Al-Shabaab attack at army base in Somalia

KISMAYO, Somalia - Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) with the help of Somalia National Army SNA (SNA) on Tuesday repulsed a deadly Al-Shabaab attack, multiple sources have confirmed.

Al-Shabaab militants, sources said, waged an attack targeting Kulbiyow army base in Lower Jubba, which is manned by KDF troops.

The base, which was first attacked by militants in 2017 January, is under Sector 2 of AMISOM in Somalia and hosts over 200 soldiers.

Local residents said the militants fled the area after firing several rounds of rocket rounds of rocket-propelled-grenades and small arms into the Somali and Kenya military base in Kulbiyow town.

Al-Shabaab fighters have encountered stiff resistance due to the alertness of the troops, they said.

The successful onslaught against the militants comes barely a week after KDF boss General Samson Mwathethe visited Somalia in a morale-boosting trip.

Mwathethe, who is serving his final year in office, toured several Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) where he interacted with solders.

Efforts to get KDF's statement over the latest foiled Al-Shabaab attack went futile with spokesman Col Paul Njuguna failing to reply to texts and calls.

In 2017, at least 70 soldiers were killed in the same military base, even though authorities in Nairobi refused to admit the run over by the militants.

“At no point was our camp overrun. The KDF remained in control of that camp… it was not breached in any way,” Manoah Esipisu, then State House spokesperson had said.

Kenyan and allied officials have praised the KDF troops at Kulbiyow for their heroism based on the official account which ruled out casualties in the battle.

Boris Johnson, Britain's PM, then serving as Foreign Secretary, cited the “decisive response” of KDF troops saying they “displayed exemplary levels of bravery in responding to the attack.”

Although the authorities had maintained that only nine soldiers died, sources revealed that they had seen several caskets at Wilson Airport in Nairobi.

The repulsion of Al-Shabaab militants on Tuesday marks tremendous progress in the fight against the militants who have caused havoc in Somalia.

Not far from Kulbiyow, at El Adde in the Gedo region, KDF troops had lost nearly 200 soldiers in 2016 when the militants ran over the military base.

In September this year, the militants also failed spectacularly when they attempted to attack the US' Ballidogle army base in Somalia.

GAROWE ONLINE