Hiiraan Online
Friday, April 24, 2015
WALAWEYN (HOL) ----An African Union soldier who has been missing since last week has been found alive and armed in forests in southern Somalia, officials told HOL Friday.
The soldier who vanished during an ambush by the Al-Qaeda linked fighters last week has spent days in shrubs until troops found in a search operation on Thursday, sources said.
Three soldiers were during the clashes in Lego, a small town in Lower Shabelle region, AU said in a statement last week.
Al-Shabab claimed the responsibility for the attack which highlights the challenges faces troops travelling across areas lost by militants.
The Burundian soldier was in good physical shape when he was found by his fellow soldiers, AU sources involved in the operation told HOL. He was brought back into his military camp.
Al-Shabab which is fighting to impose a sharia law across Somalia is waging a deadly insurgency against Somali government and the African Union forces in Somalia.
The group has recently stepped up attacks beyond Somalia, as it carried out deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda. Both countries contributed troops to the AU forces in Somalia battling extremist fighters.