Four African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Uganda were killed by mortar fired at a presidential building by Islamist insurgents in Somalia on Monday. Uganda is one of the only two countries that offer military help to Somalia. “These opposition groups fire from positions three to four kilometers [1.9-2.5 miles] from our positions.
It was a pure coincidence that the mortar was able to kill four and injure eight of our soldiers,” Maj. Barigye Bahoku, spokesman for the AU told BBC news. Last week, another suicide attack killed 32 people. Al-Shabab, a group linked to al-Qaeda that controls a significant part of Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack. Since its former government collapsed 19 years ago, Somalia has not seen a functional central government.
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