Al-Shabab Takfiri group ‘seizes town in Somalia’

Somalia’s militant group al-Shabab seized a town in the south of the country early on Friday after it was abandoned by the military and African Union-mandated (AMISOM) peacekeepers, residents said.

Somalia’s militant group al-Shabab seized a town in the south of the country early on Friday after it was abandoned by the military and African Union-mandated (AMISOM) peacekeepers, residents said.

The town of Leego, which lies about 130 km to the northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, is in Somalia’s lower Shabelle region, where al-Shabab last week killed at least 12 peacekeepers in one of the deadliest attacks on AMISOM.

Farah Ahmed, a resident of Leego, told Reuters AMISOM and Somali military forces had pulled out of the town early on Friday.

“That same minute, al-Shabab entered to control the town… The town is now calm and al-Shabab fighters are in every part of the town.”

It was not immediately clear why the military and AMISOM had withdrawn from Leego.

Al-Shabab is fighting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed central government.

The group was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been chased from most of its other strongholds across the country.