The attack dates back to May 26, but the toll was not announced until Saturday evening, June 3 by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni: "We have found the lifeless bodies of 54 soldiers, including a commander," wrote the president in a statement posted on his official Twitter account.

Ugandan soldiers of the African Union (AU) force in Somalia (Atmis) were killed on May 26 in an attack claimed by radical Islamist Shebabs on their base. Neither the AU nor Somalia provided an assessment.

It is one of the deadliest assaults since the AU-backed Somali government launched an offensive against al-Shabaab last September.

Before responding to very pertinent questions raised by members of the NRM parliamentary caucus, I updated them on the incident in Somalia.

Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base.
We discovered the... pic.twitter.com/J3EOVKYZkg

— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) June 3, 2023

The assault on the Atomis base, held by Ugandan soldiers, was launched at dawn in Bulo Marer, 120 km south-west of the capital Mogadishu, with a car bomb and suicide bombers, followed by clashes with automatic weapons.

Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab, which has been waging a bloody insurgency in the country for more than fifteen years, claimed responsibility, claiming to have "occupied" the base and caused many casualties.

The bad decisions of two officers

Two days after the assault, Yoweri Museveni offered his condolences to the families of the soldiers killed, implicitly conceding the presence of victims, and added that "all the facts" would be "made public".

Yoweri Museveni had explained the heavy toll by the bad decisions of two officers, panicked by this attack carried out by "800 terrorists" and who ordered their soldiers to retreat.

These officers "did not react as expected and panicked, which disorganized them, and Al-Shabaab took the opportunity to invade the base and destroy some of the equipment," Museveni said, adding that the two men will be tried for these facts by court martial.

Despite this, "our soldiers showed remarkable resilience and reorganized, which allowed them to take over the base," he said.

A Somali army commander told AFP of "heavy fighting" before al-Shabaab retreated in the face of reinforcements sent by Atmis, including helicopter gunships.

An offensive led by Atmis and Somalia

Al-Shabaab is fighting the Somali government and its international allies to establish Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country.

To counter them, the AU deployed in 2007 a force composed of soldiers and police from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, called AMISOM and authorized by the UN Security Council.

Atmis took over from AMISOM in April 2022 with a more offensive mandate, and the goal of ceding full responsibility for the country's security to Somali forces by the end of 2024.

Driven out of major cities in 2011-2012, al-Shabaab remains firmly entrenched in large rural areas.

In May 2022, they launched a major attack on an Atmis base held by Burundian soldiers north of Mogadishu. Neither the Somali authorities nor the AU gave a toll but Burundian military sources told AFP that 45 soldiers were killed or missing.

Returning to power in May 2022, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud declared an "all-out war" against al-Shabaab and launched a military offensive, backed by Atmis and US airstrikes.

In September, Somalia's president sent troops to support local clan militias that had risen up against them in the centre of the country. The army and the militias known as "macawisley" have since recaptured large swathes of territory from al-Shabaab, backed by Atmis and US airstrikes.

Despite these setbacks, al-Shabaab continued to carry out deadly attacks, including in the heart of cities and military installations. On October 29, 2022, two car bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing 121 people and wounding 333, the deadliest attack in five years in the country.

With AFP

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