By Juma Kwayera in Mogadishu
The African Union Mission for Somalia (Amisom) troops jointly with the Somali National Army (SNA) resumed offensive against Al Shabaab with an attack on Afgooye town.
By mid-Monday, a statement released by the command centre in Mogadishu suggested the town, some 30km west of Mogadishu, was in the hands of government troops. However, there was no mention of casualties on either side.
The attack on Afgooye, which hosts an estimated 400,000 internally displaced people who had fled fighting in Mogadishu, was deemed critical to limiting Al Shabaab attacks on civilian populations after being run out of their hideouts in the capital, southern Somalia and Baidoa.
An Amisom statement signed by Mr Wafula Wamunyinyi, the Deputy Senior Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said the operation had been “carefully planned to bring security and stability to the Afgooye corridor”.
“The Burundi and Ugandan forces of Amisom have been careful to avoid built up areas and together with SNA, are making progress against al Qaeda-backed Al Shabaab terrorists,” he said.
