MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Ethiopian air force has launched a series of air strikes in southern Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, killing at least three civilians and inflicting significant damage on civilian infrastructure.
The attacks targeted the towns of El Ba’ad and Jilib on Saturday, weeks after Addis Ababa joined an escalating air campaign against the Al-Shabaab militant group to stop its advance to the capital Mogadishu and other strategic towns in the Middle Shabelle region.
The initial strike, employing barrel bombs filled with fuel, struck El Ba’ad, a town recently captured by Al-Shabaab insurgents. Despite the absence of active hostilities in the area, the attack killed a mother and her two children and destroyed civilian property. The use of such crude and indiscriminate weaponry has drawn outrage among local residents, who have voiced fear of the disproportionate impact on non-combatants.
A second air raid targeted Jilib, a strategic Al-Shabaab stronghold, late Saturday night. The strike focused on the town’s bustling market and a makeshift university established by the militant group for Islamic sharia studies.
Images disseminated by Al-Shabaab’s media arm depicted towering flames engulfing the market, though the full scale of destruction and civilian casualties remains unverified. Independent journalists are barred from accessing Al-Shabaab-controlled territories, severely limiting the ability to assess the true extent of the damage or confirm reports of civilian harm.
Residents in both towns described widespread devastation, with the strikes allegedly hitting civilian-populated areas. The Ethiopian military has not publicly commented on the operations, but the attacks appear consistent with a broader strategy jointly agreed upon by Ethiopia and the Somali government to target regions suspected of harboring insurgents.
This approach, however, has sparked growing concern over its collateral damage, particularly in densely populated areas.
The strikes follow a similar operation earlier this month in El Baraf, another Middle Shabelle town, where Ethiopian forces used barrel bombs to partially destroy the settlement, killing a local businesswoman.
In addition to urban centers, Ethiopian air strikes have reportedly targeted grazing lands and grasslands, setting fires in an apparent bid to disrupt militant activities. While militarily strategic, this scorched-earth tactic risks exacerbating environmental degradation and compounding the suffering of rural communities already grappling with drought and protracted conflict.
The intensifying air campaign highlights the complex and volatile dynamics of Somalia’s conflict, where civilian populations increasingly bear the brunt of military operations.
The Somali government confirmed the air strikes in a statement, attributing them to “international partners” and asserting that they targeted Al-Shabaab positions. However, the statement made no mention of the market struck in Jilib or the civilian casualties in El Ba’ad, instead reiterating warnings for civilians to avoid areas under Al-Shabaab control to prevent collateral harm.
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