Al Shabaab militants ‘overrun’ a KDF camp

Heavy fighting is ongoing after suspected Al Shabaab militants reportedly attacked a remote Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) base in Somalia near the Kenya border.

KDF says it has destroyed two vehicles fitted with explosive devices as the militants claim to have overrun the camp manned by Kenyan soldiers serving in an African Union force.

Details on the number of attackers or casualties remain scanty. The attack comes a year after the El Adde January 15, 2016 attack that left more than 100 Kenyan soldiers dead.

Details of the El Adde attack showed that militants attacked the KDF camp at 5:30 am attack on two camps in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base camp.

According to Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Samson Mwathethe, vehicles that had been commandeered by suicide bombers were driven into the camp, followed by a number of suicide attacks.

The Kenya Defence Forces camp had a company of not more than 120 soldiers of which an unknown number was killed in the attack, others injured while others are missing.

The militant group, which once ruled much of Somalia, wants to topple the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and drive out the peacekeepers made up of soldiers from Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Ethiopia and other African nations.