This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
On September 14, 2019, a military convoy of Burundian peacekeepers was ambushed by Al Shabaab militants north of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
Abdikarim Hassan, a local Somali security official, confirmed the attack, stating, "We've been informed about an ambush in which a number of Burundian soldiers were killed."
A senior Burundian official, who wished to remain anonymous, also confirmed the attack, stating, "Yes it's true. Unfortunately 12 of our soldiers were killed and six others injured yesterday (Saturday) by Shabaab militants who ambushed them as they were returning from a security mission in a convoy going from Jowhar to Mogadishu."
The attack occurred on the road linking Mogadishu and Jowhar, approximately 90 kilometers north of the capital. The Shabaab has been fighting to topple the Somali government for over a decade.
Just hours before the ambush, a bomb exploded on the same road, killing three people, including two local officials, according to Abdikarim Hassan.
Resident Ahmed Haji reported hearing gunfire and seeing bodies, stating, "Some villagers saw the dead bodies of the AU soldiers near the scene of the ambush, but they could not say their numbers."
The attack is the latest in a series of bombings and assaults claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked militants. The Shabaab was driven out of Mogadishu by government forces backed by 20,000 peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) in 2011.
