MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – In one of a serious of allegations against Somalia, Kenya said Somali security agencies were aware of a build-up of Al-Shabaab militants near El-Adde, prior to a daring attack on a Kenyan military base that left nearly 185 soldiers dead on January 2016.
It says lack of a secure AMISOM communications prevented besieged Kenyan troops from seeking reinforcements from nearby bases, housing African Union peacekeepers, the Nation newspaper has reported.
Kenya earlier said Al-Shabaab had planned to assassinate former president Mwai Kibaki and his prime minister Raila Odinga in 2012 in submissions to the International Court of Justice on the maritime case with Somalia.
KDF braved firepower from hundreds of Al-Shabaab militants, who used car bombs to blast their way into a military base near the border with Kenya “before hundreds of militants overran the camp with relatively little resistance from Kenyan troops”.
By the time reinforcements from Kenyan defense forces arrived at the base, it was “far too late to assist”, says a report published by a team appointed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2014.
“While the Government of Kenya is yet to release official casualty figures, the Monitoring Group believes that some 150 Kenyan soldiers were killed during the attack, making it the largest military defeat in Kenyan history,” the report states.
“In addition, at least 11 soldiers were captured alive and subsequently held hostage in two separate groups by al-Shabaab in Middle Juba. Since their abduction, the (Monitoring) Group has received information concerning the changing whereabouts and status of the captives, which it has shared with the Kenyan authorities through an intermediary.”
The allegations were part of documents Kenya filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a bid to backup its claim in Somalia’s coastline along the Indian Ocean.
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