Al-Shabaab and Somali army clash over strategic town

Al-Shabaab and Somali army clash over strategic town. [Courtesy]

Fighting was ongoing between Somalia's armed forces and the Al-Shabaab Islamist group over a strategic town in the country's central region, a local militia commander and elder said on Monday.

Growing attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked group, including one on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's convoy, are fuelling concerns of a jihadist resurgence in the Horn of Africa nation after the militants were forced back in recent years.

Al-Shabaab militants attacked Moqokori, roughly 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, with "vehicles loaded with explosives and hundreds of fighters", local militia commander Abdulahi Adan said.

The town's militia had "tactically retreated", he said, but added that "there is still ongoing sporadic fighting in the area, so that this is not a complete takeover".

Yusuf Mohamed, an elder in the nearby town of Mahas, said "several wounded soldiers and community militia fighters were brought to Mahas for treatment".

Moqokori is strategically located as a gateway to several other major towns in the central Hiraan region.

The town has long been contested, with Al-Shabaab seizing it in 2016, and last holding it briefly in 2018.

The official Somali news agency Sonna said the attack had been prevented, and claimed "several militants were killed during the fighting". There were no further details.

It comes only months after Al-Shabaab took the town of Adan Yabaal, also in the Hiraan region, and which was used as a base by Somali military commanders.

More than 10,000 soldiers from the African Union Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) are present in the country, but this has not prevented Al-Shabaab from continuing to carry out attacks.

At the end of June, at least seven Ugandan soldiers were killed during clashes with Al-Shabaab in a town in the Lower Shabelle region.