This archive report was first published on 22 December 2019.
On January 11, 2016, Lance Corporal Eric Langat was on sentry duty at the KDF Forward Operating Base in El-Adde, Somalia, when a vehicle breached the first defence and detonated, blowing up the whole camp.
Langat, who had just taken over sentry duties 15 days prior, and his colleague tried to stop the vehicle using a Rocket-Propelled Grenade, but the driver avoided the trenches and hit a tree, causing a massive explosion.
‘When I came to, the whole camp was in chaos. We continued to fire at the enemy both from in front and behind me, but the attackers were all over, including the kitchen. It was difficult trying to shoot inside the camp for fear of hitting colleagues,’ Langat recalls.
Langat and some of his colleagues escaped through the same route breached by the vehicle, but a colleague was shot from behind and injured, and to avoid being captured, shot himself dead.
Langat later assembled 10 other soldiers and began their march to safety, but seven of them insisted on using the road, and Langat and three others resolved to move through the forest. The seven have never been found, but Langat's group ran for 30 kilometres before one of the soldiers asked to be allowed to rest and died.
Langat and his remaining colleagues continued running until they came to a maize plantation, where he remembered that he had a mobile phone, which they used to call for assistance. They managed to direct a rescue helicopter to their location and were rescued.
Langat's brush with death has not dimmed his resolve to defend the country whenever called upon. He had previously survived an al-Shabaab attack two years before in Middo, where some of his colleagues lost their lives.
On August 9, 2012, Langat and his 9 KR battalion entered Afmadhow, the oldest town in Somalia's Lower Jubba, to no resistance from al-Shabaab. They set up camp and were visited by the Army Commander as they prepared for an advance to Miido.
On August 31, 2012, the jubilant troops entered Miido at about 3pm, but their celebration was short-lived as an improvised explosive device blew the tyres of their Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in what would turn out to be an ambush.
