Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has revealed that Al-Shabaab’s raid on an African Union military base in Somalia on May 26 resulted in the deaths of 54 Ugandan soldiers.
Museveni called it ‘’one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab militants in the war-torn country".
"We discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including a commander," the President said on his official Twitter page.
The death toll is one of the highest since a contingency of peacekeepers from different countries under the umbrella of the African Union launched an offensive against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
President Museveni also stated that the Ugandan soldiers managed to successfully recapture the Buulo Mareer military base from the insurgents.
He further said that two soldiers are in custody following the attack, which he had earlier termed preventable.
Al-Shabaab has been waging a deadly insurgency against the Somalian government for more than a decade.
The militants drove a car laden with explosives into the base in Buulo Mareer, 120 kilometres southwest of the capital Mogadishu, leading to a gunfight, local residents and a Somali military commander told AFP.
In 2022, the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, launched an "all-out war" against Al-Shabaab.
But despite the gains made by the pro-government forces, the militants have continued to strike with lethal force against civilian and military targets.
