Somalia: Clashes between al-Shabaab islamist group and African Union kill 16 people, including 4 peacekeepers
At least 10 people died, including four African Union peacekeepers, in fighting in Somalia’s capital between forces loyal to the Western-backed government and al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels.
The AU troops died when a mortar hit the presidential palace in southern Mogadishu, Major Barigye Ba-Hoku, a spokesman for the continental body’s peacekeeping mission, said in a phone interview today from the city.
“We have lost four soldiers and eight others have sustained injuries,” Ba-Hoku said.
In the city’s central Bakara market, six people were killed near a jewelry kiosk, said Ali Muse Sheikh, a paramedic at Nationlink and Lifeline Africa.