This archive report was first published on 21 December 2019.
On January 15, 2016, the Kenyan military suffered its deadliest attack in history at the El-Adde base in Somalia. The assault by al-Shabaab militants left scores of soldiers dead, with many more still missing in action.
According to a newly-released book by the Kenya Army, some of the soldiers who died in the battle turned their guns on themselves to avoid being captured alive by the enemy. Lance Corporal Eric Lang'at, a soldier who survived the attack, recounts the harrowing experience in the book, The Soldier's Legacy.
“Due to the criticality of the injury, the wounded soldier turned his rifle and shot himself on the lower chin to avoid being captured by the enemy alive. He died instantly,” Lang'at narrates.
The book also highlights the bravery of soldiers who risked their lives to save their comrades. Despite being in the line of fire, some soldiers offered themselves as human shields to help their colleagues withdraw from the besieged base.
“…I heard Lance Bombardier Martin Imbitsi instructing his gunner colleagues to intensify Artillery engagement in order to break up the attack even if this meant bombarding own location to avert own troops being taken prisoner,” Lang'at recalls.
The Battle of El Adde was a turning point in the war against al-Shabaab, with the Kenyan military launching a daring combat search and rescue mission to rescue soldiers who had survived the attack. Captain Samwel Gaiti, a pilot with the Joint Helicopter Command, was part of the mission.
“We were a team of three aircraft, two MD500 and a Z9WE. About 10 nautical miles to El-Adde, I saw thick smoke rising to the sky and from a distance looters could be seen removing stuff from the FOB. As soon as we attained effective range, I noticed flashes of exploding anti-aircraft rounds very close to our helicopter’s wind screen,” Captain Gaiti writes.
