KAMPALA, June 4 (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in an attack last week by militant group al Shabaab on a military base in Somalia.
Museveni said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had since recaptured the base from the Islamist group.
“Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said.
Al Shabaab fighters had targeted the base early last Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Al Shabaab, which has said it carried out suicide bomb attacks and 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.
Persons:
Yoweri Museveni, Museveni, “, ”, Al Shabaab, Kanjyik Ghosh, Elias Biryabarema, Cynthia Osterman, Daniel Wallis
Organizations:
Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Somalia's, Thomson
Locations:
KAMPALA, Shabaab, Somalia, Uganda, Bulamarer, Mogadishu, Al Shabaab, Bengaluru, Kampala