by ReutersUgandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in an attack by the terrorist group Al Shabaab on a military base in Somalia last week.
Museveni said that the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) had since retaken the base from the Islamist group.
“Our troops showed remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said.
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Al Shabaab fighters targeted the base in the early hours of last Friday in Bulmarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Museveni said last week that there had been Ugandan casualties but did not give further details about the attack on the soldiers, who are serving in the African Union Transition Mission (ATMIS) in Somalia.
Al Shabaab, which has said it carried out suicide bombings that killed 137 soldiers at the base, has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia’s Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
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