The attack remains the deadliest on ATMIS troops (successor to AMISOM) since their formation in April 2022, and is also Uganda's worst defeat in Somalia since its deployment in February 2007.[3]
Ever since the capture of the town, Al-Shabaab has been using a series of guerilla tactics to harass the UPDF and SNA troops stationed there, such as the use of IEDs, suicide attacks, mortar attacks and road ambushes, with the most prominent being in April 2018, when Al-Shabaab launched an assault on the AMISOM base in the town, killing at least 46 UPDF soldiers according to local sources, although they failed to overrun the base, and were forced to flee after facing heavy resistance from the UPDF forces there, losing around 30 fighters.[9]
Lead up to the Attack
Weeks prior to the attack, there was an increase in clashes between Al-Shabaab and UPDF troops in the Lower Shabelle region, with the most notable ones being:
On April 15, an ambush on a UPDF convoy travelling on the outskirts of Janaale left 9 UPDF soldiers dead, according to Al-Shabaab claims, with the Somali government claiming to have foiled the ambush, killing 9 militants, posting photos of what appears to be 4 dead militants .[10] Al-Shabaab released a footage of the ambush several days later, showing the bodies of 3 UPDF soldiers, and weapons captured from the troops..
On May 18, an IED targeting a SNA/UPDF convoy travelling on the Merca-Afgooye road left 27 soldiers dead (22 SNA, 5 UPDF)
Although these operations didn't inflict heavy casualties on the UPDF troops, it was an increase from initially no attacks on UPDF troops for the last several months due to an anti Al-Shabaab military offensive launched by the FGS in Central Somalia on August, shifting the groups' primary focus on SNA in Central Somalia and away from the ATMIS troops in the South.
Battle
On the night of the attack, increased Al-Shabaab activities were detected on the outskirts of the town of Qoryoley. Based on the movements,.it was highly anticipated that the militants were most likely to attack either Qoryoley or Awdhegle, both towns bearing a fairly distant proximity to Buulo-Mareer.[11] The UPDF troops in those towns stayed on high alert, expecting the militants to attack their bases, while the UPDF troops stationed in Buulo-Mareer lowered their guard, which later proved to be a fatal mistake.
At approximately EST 05:00 (GMT+3), at least 3 SVBIED explosions were carried out by Al-Shabaab suicide bombers at several defense posts of the camp, killing the UPDF troops stationed there and breaching the base, which was immediately followed by a heavy assault carried out by an estimated 800 Al-Shabaab fighters storming the breached base from different directions, causing some UPDF troops to panic and flee, which caused disorganization among the units in the base.[7]
In a propaganda footage later released by the group, the militants are seen heavily pressuring the UPDF troops in the base with intense gunfire using PK machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in high numbers from different fronts.
Realizing their forces were vastly outnumbered, commanders Maj. Oluka and Maj. Obbo gave their platoons an order to retreat, which caused further disorganization and panic among the other platoons left defending the base from the attackers. This action would later lead to the 2 commanders facing a court-martial by the Ugandan military.[12][13]
By 07:00am, the base perimeters were overrun by the attackers, some of them which spilled into the base, finishing off the wounded troops in there, along with looting and destroying the base, while the rest pursued the retreating troops, resulting in a great number of soldiers killed, with some being captured alive, and some fortunately managing to escape by foot to the nearest ATMIS base, located about 10 kilometers North of Buulo-Mareer, in the village of Golweyn[14]
After fully capturing the town, the militants entered it and looted SNA patrol posts which were vacated earlier by the Somali troops. They eventually withdrew from the town before ATMIS recaptured it on June 1.[2]
Aftermath
In a press release by Al-Shabaab hours after the attack, the militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to have killed at least 137 soldiers in the attack.[15] Ugandan government officials denied those claims, stating that out of 221 soldiers stationed in the base, 54 were killed in the attack, claiming that Al-Shabaab's casualty figure was "grossly exaggerated".[7]
Al-Shabaab went on to release a 53-minute footage of the attack on the base several days later, showing the bodies of at least 45 UPDF soldiers, among them the body of Lt. Col. Edward Nyororo, the highest ranking commander in the base, who allegedly shot himself dead when the militants entered the base as a means to avoid capture.[16][1] The militant group later raised the casualty figure to "nearly 200", in an updated press release from a senior Al-Shabaab official.
Several Ugandan soldiers were also captured as prisoners of war.
Furthermore, there were four UPDF soldiers who managed to hide from the militants in dense bushes on the outskirts of Buulo-Mareer, allegedly surviving on their urine for six days until the town was recaptured by ATMIS reinforcements on May 31.[17][4][2]
In an interview with one of the survivors, he claims that on the night prior to the attack, the local town farmers were attending to their crops near the UPDF base a little later than usual, which caused the soldiers to mistaken the advancing Al-Shabaab militants for local farmers when they approached the base, delaying their reaction.[18]
This could possibly hint that the town locals worked with Al-Shabaab in the planning of the attack, which has been seen before in previous attacks on African Union troops like the Battle of Leego in 2015, Battle of El Adde in 2016, Battle of Kulbiyow in 2017, when the locals provided Al-Shabaab with intel and helped them in capturing escaped soldiers.[19] In a short clip posted on social media by a Buulo-Mareer resident, town locals can be seen looting from the UPDF base, taking items once belonging to the troops there, shortly after Al-Shabaab overran the base.[20]
In November 2023, a Ugandan court-martial sitting in Mogadishu found Major Oluka and Colonel Deo Akiki guilty of cowardice and failure to respond to warnings of the impending attack and ordered their dismissal from the service. Four non-commissioned officers were also convicted for their failure to protect military equipment.[21]
Reactions
The United States Department of State expressed its "deepest condolences" to relatives and friends of the victims and wished to "a full recovery to those injured."[22]
Tactical Failures
In a public statement made by President Yoweri Museveni days later in Kampala, he criticized the UPDF of corruption, claiming that instead of sending 'battle-hardened soldiers', 'cooks and bodyguards' are sent to Somalia as a means to make money instead of looking at the risks.[23] He added that "this unfortunate incident should be used to remind all those concerned, that operations in Somalia and other theatres, are combat missions and not welfare missions where you can access UN allowances", he said in the statement. "Somalia is a very dangerous place... if you go there like that, you [will] end up with a bad situation for yourself."[23]
Museveni also claimed that US and Turkish drones were present during the battle, but did not cooperate with each other nor the UPDF troops when the camp came under attack.[24] He also claimed that the militants who stormed the base were around 800,[14] which raised questions among the public about how 800 militants were able to bypass security and carry out such a high-level attack.
AFRICOM, on the other hand, stated in a press release hours later to have carried out an airstrike against the militants during the attack, claiming to have "destroyed weapons and equipment unlawfully taken by Al-Shabaab fighters", but didn't state whether any Al-Shabaab militants were killed in the airstrike, only stating that no civilians were harmed.[25]
Related Research Articles
The Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), previously known as the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. From 2007 to 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the UPDF had a total strength of 40,000–45,000 and consisted of land forces and an air wing. Recruitment to the forces is done annually.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations Security Council. It was mandated to support transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. As part of its duties, AMISOM supported the Federal Government of Somalia's forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants.
The 2009 timeline of events in the Somalia War (2006–2009) during January 2009 is set out below. From the beginning of February the timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present) is set out following the conclusion of the previous phase of the civil war.
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-Qaeda-aligned al-Shabaab militants.
A series of battles in Hiraan, Shabeellaha Dhexe and Galgudug, between rebels of al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam and Somali government forces and ICU militants loyal to the government, erupted during spring 2009. The fighting led to al-Shabaab capturing major government strongholds and Ethiopian forces re-entering Somalia and setting up bases in Hiraan. There was a halt in fighting during a government offensive in Mogadishu, which started on May 22.
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 2018 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.
This is a 2012 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
The Battle of Kismayo was an offensive led by the Kenya Defence Forces, under the codename Operation Sledge Hammer, to seize the port city of Kismayo, Somalia, from Al-Shabaab from 28 September 2012. Fighting alongside the Kenya Army were Raskamboni movement militia and the Somali Army.
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).
This article contains a timeline of events for the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab.
The Battle of El Adde took place on 15 January 2016. Al-Shabaab militants launched an attack on a Kenyan-run AMISOM army base in the town of El Adde, Gedo, Somalia. It remains the deadliest attack on the African Union Mission to Somalia and is the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) largest defeat since independence in 1963. As such, the Kenyan government went to extreme lengths to conceal the extent of its losses. It has been described by the media as a "military massacre" or military disaster. It was also the largest military defeat in Kenyan history.
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 1 April 2018, Al-Shabaab fighters attacked an AMISOM base in Bulo Marer in the Lower Shebelle region of Somalia.
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.
Events in the year 2023 in Somalia.
On October 7, 2022, Somali Army troops repulsed an Al-Shabaab attack on a military base near Balad, Somalia. In the skirmish, nineteen al-Shabaab members were reportedly killed.
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Al-Shabaab 
ATMIS [5] 
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