At least 25 people died on Saturday in central Somalia as a result of an attack by the jihadist group Al Shabab on a convoy of vehicles carrying food and other humanitarian aid items, according to the EFE Agency.
“We have testimonies of how the bodies of 25 civilians and their homes were set on fire. It is a tragedy,” said Ali Jayte, governor of the Hiiraan region where the attack took place.
The terrorist group Al Shabab, which controls some rural regions of Somalia, carried out several attacks in the country and claimed the action this Saturday, through its radio frequency channel, in a message that did not detail the number of victims.
According to the jihadists, the attack happened to target members of a local militia called Macawiisley, which since its creation in 2014 has maintained intense clashes with Al Shabab.
Jayte assured Efe, in turn, that the Somali army and allied groups will continue to carry out military operations against terrorists in this region.
Al Shabab, which has been affiliated with the Al Qaeda network since 2012, seeks to overthrow the African country’s central government and forcefully establish an Islamic state.
On 23 August, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced an “all-out war” against the group, to “eliminate Al Shabab, although he did not specify when these military operations would begin.
Somalia has been in an armed conflict since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, which left the country without an effective government and at the mercy of militias and radicals.
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