Al-Shabab attack panicked Uganda troops, says president

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has confirmed that a Ugandan army base in Somalia was stormed by hundreds of al-Shabab militants just before dawn on Friday.

In a statement published on Twitter, he criticised the Ugandan troops stationed there, accusing them of failure.

These are sharp words from the President Museveni about the conduct of his own soldiers after Islamist fighters managed to overrun one of their African Union mission bases in Somalia.

He said the soldiers panicked and withdrew. This was unnecessary, he said, because their defence would have been strong enough if they had stayed in place.

On Friday, al-Shabab had said it had killed numerous Ugandans. Mr Museveni acknowledged that there had been some deaths but gave no details.

The United States later carried out an airstrike to destroy captured weapons.

A military inquiry is under way.

By BBC