Shabaab Training Camp in Laanta Buro village

Al Shabaab governor of Lower Shabelle region Sheikh Mohammed Abu Abdullah called for youths to attend the regional training camps.

• One camp is in Laanta Buro village, outside of Afgoi, about 40 km south of Mogadishu.
• The training camps provide weapons to fighters and teach courses on improvised explosive device (IED) construction.
• Abdullah also announced the opening of a training camp for elders.[10]

The Defense Minister for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdihakim Mohamud Fiqi, said that Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Djibouti had offered to deploy troops to Somalia as part of AMISOM.[11]

Clashes between African troops and al Shabaab militants in Mogadishu on Sunday left at least one dead and seven others injured. [12] Ethiopian troops pulled out of the Gedo region towns of Beled Hawo and Luq and returned to Ethiopia on Sunday.[13]

• Fighting broke out in the al Shabaab controlled town of Dhobley in Lower Jubba region as Somali forces returned from training in Kenya.
• The clash resulted in the deaths of at least ten and injured five others. Al Shabaab remained in control of Dhobley.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abu Mus’ab, al Shabaab’s military spokesman, claimed that Kenyan forces aided Somali troops in Dhobley. “We can assure that Kenyan forces were aiding the TFG and its allied militias attacked us and we defeated them,” he said. “The Kenyan forces also shelled the town they targeted civilian houses.”[14]

The Lower Jubba region of Dif was deserted on Saturday by al Shabaab fighters that had claimed the territory the previous week. No fighting had occurred in the village to force al Shabaab out. Locals speculated that the threat of gathering Somali forces on the outskirts of Dif influenced the group’s decision to vacate.[15]

Deputy Minister of Sports and Labor Abdirashid Mohammed Hidig reported that Somali troops were in the Lower Jubba region and were prepared to take on al Shabaab. He also announced plans for TFG forces to take the village of Dif. On Mogadishu, Hidig said, “Bakara is a military base of the rebel groups; they are responsible for the closure of Bakara Market, not AMISOM and Somali Transitional Federal Government.”[16]

Puntland Attorney General Mohamoud Hassan Aw Osman narrowly escaped injury after a remote controlled roadside bomb detonated outside of his vehicle on Saturday in the city of Galkayo. At least four people were injured in the attack that Puntland authorities believe al Shabaab to be behind.[17]

Al Shabaab released a statement describing the punishment of two adulterers in Sako in the Lower Jubba region. The group also described a meeting in Banadir region with Mudulud clan elders in which the elders agreed to support al Shabaab until foreign troops left the country.[18]

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