Mogadishu, Oct 27. (dpa/GNA) – Clashes between Somali soldiers and the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab, have left dozens dead in the south-west of the country, the Somali Defence Ministry and al-Shabaab reported on Tuesday.
The ministry said 75 al-Shabaab fighters had been killed and at least 56 wounded in Bay Region.
Al-Shabaab, meanwhile, claimed 300 soldiers had been killed. The figures cannot be independently verified.
A local livestock owner told dpa that he had seen numerous bodies in uniform, scattered across the bush, following the fighting on Monday evening.
Many residents had fled airstrikes, he added. Observers believe that al-Shabaab is exploiting a political power struggle in the south-west of the country to strengthen its position in the region.
For months, militias loyal to Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, the former president of Somalia’s South West State, have been fighting government forces.
After federal forces took control in March of the city of Baidoa, the capital of Bay Region, Laftagareen stepped down. Since then, fighting has repeatedly broken out between the government and his supporters, who are often backed by al-Shabaab.
Somalia, with a population of around 20 million, has been plagued by conflict for years. Al-Shabaab controls large rural areas in the south and centre of the country.
Power struggles between the federal government and individual regional administrations, are worsening the country’s already unstable situation.
GNA