On 1 April 2018, Al-Shabaab fighters attacked an AMISOM base in Bulo Marer in the Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. [1]
| 2018 African Union base attack in Bulo Marer | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Part of Somali Civil War (2009–present) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Al-Shabaab |  Federal Government of Somalia [3] | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~100 [4] | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 14 killed (Al-Shabaab claim) [5] 30 killed (Ugandan army claim) [6] |
:1 killed, several wounded (local report) [3] | ||||||
Two trucks filled with explosives blew up at the AMISOM military camp in Bula Marer, 110 km south of Mogadishu. Then about 100 Al-Shabaab militants attacked the base with gunfire. [4] [7] Another suicide bomber rammed his vehicle packed with explosives into a military convoy carrying Ugandan soldiers from Golweyn. [8] According to the Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle region Ali Nur Mohamed, AMISOM troops destroyed the vehicle with a rocket propelled grenade. [2] The militants also attacked a third AMISOM base in Barawe with mortars and launched infantry attacks on two Somali government positions in Qoryoley and Mashallay. These attacks were reportedly intended to distract the troops in those camps from supporting the forces in Bulo Marer. [7] Witnesses said Al-Shabaab terrorists attacked civilians and set houses and shops on fire after they raided the military base. [3]
Ali Nur Mohamed told VOA Somali that AMISOM and Somali troops repulsed all attacks. [2]
The death toll was not clear. Uganda People's Defense Force spokesman Richard Karemire said four Ugandan peacekeepers were killed and six AMISOM troops injured. Thirty Al-Shabaab terrorists were killed according to his reports. [6] Al-Shabaab's military operations spokesperson Abdiaziz Abu Mus'ab said that the group lost only 14 fighters and killed at least 59 African Union soldiers. [5] Abdi Nur Hashi, a Somali military colonel stationed near the base, told the Guardian that as many as 46 Ugandan troops died in the attack. One Somali soldier died and several others were injured. [3]
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a Multinational force formed by the African Union. The operation deployed to Somalia soon after the Islamic Courts Union was deposed by troops from Ethiopia during a large scale invasion in late 2006. The missions primary objective was to maintain the regime change between the ICU and the newly installed Transitional Federal Government, implement a national security plan and train the TFG security forces. As part of its duties, AMISOM later supported the Federal Government of Somalia in its war against Al-Shabaab. AMISOM was the most deadly peacekeeping operation in the post-war era.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab, is a transnational Salafi Jihadist military and political organization based in Somalia and active elsewhere in East Africa. It is actively involved in the ongoing Somali Civil War and incorporates elements of Somali nationalism into its Islamist cause. Allegiant to the militant pan-Islamist organization al-Qaeda since 2012, it has also forged ties with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Somali Civil War (2009–present) is the ongoing phase of the Somali Civil War which is concentrated in southern and central Somalia. It began in late January 2009 with the present conflict mainly between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops and al-Shabaab militants who pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda during 2012.
Bulo Marer is a town in the southwestern Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. It was a base of Al-Shabaab, and was the site of an ill-fated 2013 military operation during which French commandos attempted to free a French hostage that was being held by the insurgent group. The town was taken by Somali government forces assisted by AMISOM troops after a battle on August 30, 2014. It was the site of the 2024 African Union base attack in Bulo Marer.
The Battle of Mogadishu (2010–11) began on 23 August 2010 when al-Shabaab insurgents began attacking government and African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) positions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab began its offensive after its spokesman said the group was declaring a "massive war" on troops sent by AMISOM, describing its 6,000 peacekeepers as "invaders". In December 2010 the number of AMISOM troops was increased to 8,000 and later to 9,000. The battle's name usually includes the years, when referenced, in order to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades long Somali Civil War.
Qoryoley is a town in the Lower Shebelle region of the South West State of Somalia. It is located 123 kilometers southwest of the capital city Mogadishu and 23 kilometers west of the coastal city of Merca.
This is a 2011 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
This is a 2012 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
This is a 2014 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
Operation Indian Ocean was a joint military operation between the Somali military, AMISOM and the United States military against the Al-Shabaab militant group aimed at eliminating the remaining insurgent-held areas in southern Somalia. It officially began in August 2014.
This is a 2015 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
Lego, is a town located in Bay, Somalia. It is situated 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu and approximately 20 km west of Yaqbiriweyne and 54 km east of Burhakaba.
On 18 March 2014, a car loaded with explosives detonated outside the Hotel Amalo in Buloburde, Somalia, which was used by African Union and Somali troops who had captured the town from Al-Shabaab a week earlier. Gunfire was reported to have followed for five hours, the car bombing having occurred around 02:00 local time. At least 27 people were killed in the attack.
The Battle of Kulbiyow took place on 27 January 2017, when al-Shabaab militants attacked and took control of the military base and town of Kulbiyow, held by the Somali Armed Forces and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
The Golweyn ambush by al-Shabaab militants against an AMISOM convoy took place on 30 July 2017. Resulting in the death of several Ugandan soldiers, the attack seriously disrupted the control of pro-government forces over the Lower Shebelle region in Somalia, eventually leading to the fall of the strategically significant town of Leego to al-Shabaab.
On August 10, 2021, a patrol of Ugandan soldiers that formed part of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) were ambushed and attacked in a farmland about 2½ kilometers from Golweyn by Al-Shabaab Islamic militants while on a routine patrol to secure the main supply route along the Beldamin-Golweyn Forward Operating Base in the Lower Shabelle.
This attack was followed by an exchange of gunfire between AMISOM forces and Al-Shabaab militants, that lasted several hours. "During the counterattack, 7 terrorists were killed while others sustained injuries and an assortment of weapons was recovered," AMISOM said in a tweet. Also one Ugandan soldier died. But afterwards, reports were received that the 7 deceased were not members of Al-Shabaab but civilians and that they had been killed by AMISOM forces, upon which the tweet was deleted. Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, the Governor of Lower Shabelle confirmed after talking to local residents, that five farmers and two others whose vehicle broke down on the side of the road, were killed by the AMISOM soldiers after the ambush by al-Shabaab. District Commissioner Nur Osman Rage, detailed that after their encounter with Al-Shabaab, AMISOM forces "diverted to a nearby farm, picked an elderly farmer and four of his workers, blindfolded them and paraded them on the tarmac road. They then stopped two trucks on transit in the area, picked the two drivers, blindfolded them and together with the other five, took them to a point where an IED was planted, forced the civilians to sit on the device and detonated it on the seven victims who were blindfolded, instantly killing them.” The incident was allegedly witnessed firsthand by Somali security officers, local elders and many others in the area.
The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) is an active African Union transition and drawdown mission from peacekeeping operations in Somalia. Formerly the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), ATMIS's mandate will end in 2024, with full transition of security operations to the Somali National Armed Forces. ATMIS consists of troops from the East African nations of Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda.
On 20 July 2022, the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab launched an invasion from Somalia into Ethiopia's Somali Region. Taking advantage of the instability created by the Tigray war, the goal of the operation was to establish a presence for the group within southern Ethiopia.
The battle of Buulo Mareer took place on 26 May 2023, when Al-Shabaab fighters stormed an African Union military camp manned by Ugandan forces in the town of Bulo Marer, Lower Shabelle, Somalia.
