Fierce exchange of fire broke out Friday January 15, 2016 at 4am between the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and Al-Shabaab militants near the Kenyan border at El-Adde area of southern Somalia.
The fighting began after the terrorists rammed a suicide car bomb into the gates of an army camp being used by KDF troops who are under African Union (AMISOM) forces, provoking a counter attack by the soldiers.
KDF spokesman David Obonyo told Daily Nation that the number of casualties was yet to be established, and that fighting was still on going as at 10am.
Obonyo explained that the Shabaab militants had overrun a Somali National Army (SNA) camp which is near the African Union base that sheltered the KDF troops, before the fighting erupted.
“We will provide more information once it becomes available,” said the spokesman.
According to a Reuters report about the same attack, Al-Shabaab said that it had taken control of the base after KDF troops fled, following “death of several of their counterparts” in the fighting.
“Our fighters went in after the car bomb exploded at the gate of the base. After heavy exchange of gunfire, we took over the base,” Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab was quoted by Reuters.
KDF are part of African troops stationed in Somalia to fight the Al-Shabaab Islamist group, and restore Somalia back to being a safe haven for its citizens.
Somalia has been ensnared in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, which has seen opportunistic groups like Al-Shabaab rise and struggle to be in power to impose its harsh version of Islamic law across the Horn of Africa country.
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