Burundi Say 10 Troops Killed In Attack On AU Base In Somalia

Ten Burundian peacekeepers were killed in Tuesday's attack by Al-Shabaab jihadists on an African Union (AU) base in the Somalia, the Burundi's army said Wednesday. Twenty-five soldiers were injured and five are missing while 20 Al-Shabaab militants were killed, it said in a statement.It was the first attack on a peacekeeping base

since the AU Transition Mission in the Somalia (ATMIS) replaced the previous AMISOM force on April 1. The AU forces sent in helicopter gunships after the pre-dawn attack on a camp housing Burundian troops near Ceel Baraf, a village some 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu, military officials and

witnesses said. The provisional toll is 45 soldiers killed or missing, including a battalion commander colonel, a Burundian military source told the media on condition of anonymity, while a second source backed up the figures. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had taken control of the camp and that 173 soldiers

had been killed. The Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia's fragile central government for more than a decade. The Somalia's government condemned the heinous attack and appealed to the international community to do more to support Somalia forces and ATMIS in effectively combatting terrorism.