African Union Force Strikes Al-Shabab Camps in Somalia

The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said its Burundi and Uganda contingent carried out a joint military offensive with the Somali National Army along with local volunteers that inflicted heavy casualties on al-Shabaab terrorists. In a statement, ATMIS said the operation took place in a forest near the village of Ali Foldhere in the southern province of Middle Shabelle. The operation comes less than two weeks after Somalia asked the UN Security Council for a three-month delay in the planned draw-down of ATMIS after setbacks in the fight against the terrorist group. Abdi Ismail Samatar, Professor at the University of Minnesota and a senator in the Somali parliament, tells VOA’s Douglas Mpuga, although the AU forces have made enormous sacrifices in Somalia, the main problem is the political culture of the elite in the country.