Uganda Says Troops Kill 189 al-Shabaab in Attack on South Somalia Base

No Ugandan casualties reported, officials deny any civilian deaths

The Ugandan Army has reported a 24-hour operation against an al-Shabaab base in southern Somalia, claiming they’d killed 189 militants and destroyed the base. They said no Ugandan troops sustained casualties and denied any civilian deaths.

That is one of the largest death tolls of the entire African Union (AU) campaign in Somalia. The figure can’t be confirmed, but it is a shockingly large amount with no civilian casualties. That they overran an entire base next to a village and killed no villagers seems almost impossible to believe.

Uganda has been an active part of the AU operation in Somalia, but rarely has taken the lead in big operations like this. Their close proximity to Somalia means that they have long feared spill-over violence from southern Somalia.

Uganda also claimed relative security in this part of Somalia, despite inflicting huge casualties there, saying it was peaceful enough for Somali farmers to carry out their harvests.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.