Al Shabaab captures strategic town of Adan Yabaal

17/4/2025 6:24

Al Shabaab fighters

captured a town in central Somalia on Wednesday that government

forces had been using as a staging area to drive back an

offensive by the militants that has gained ground in recent

weeks, residents and soldiers said.



Advances by the al Qaeda affiliate, which included briefly

capturing villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu last

month, have left residents of the capital on edge as rumours

swirl that al Shabaab could target the city.



The army has recaptured those villages, but al Shabaab

continues to advance in the countryside, leading the government

to deploy police officers and prison guards to support the

military, soldiers have told Reuters.



Six residents and three soldiers said al Shabaab seized the

town of Adan Yabaal, which lies around 245 km (150 miles) north

of Mogadishu, in heavy fighting on Wednesday.



"After many hours of fighting we made a tactical

retreat," said Aden Ismail, a military officer who transported

injured soldiers to the nearby Hiiraan region.



The army and allied clan militias have been using Adan

Yabaal as an operating base for raids against al Shabaab.



President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who hails from the area,

visited the town last month to meet with military commanders

there about sending reinforcements.



"If al Shabaab captures one town, that does not mean they

overpowered us," Mohamud said in a speech on Wednesday, without

directly naming the town. "There is a big difference between a

war and a battle."



Al Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency since 2007 to

seize power and rule based on its strict interpretation of

Islamic Sharia law, said in a statement that its forces had

overrun 10 military installations during Wednesday's fighting.



"After early morning prayers, we heard a deafening

explosion, then gunfire," Fatuma Nur, a mother of four, told

Reuters by telephone from Adan Yabaal. "Al Shabaab attacked us

from two directions."



National government officials were either not reachable or

did not respond to requests for comment.



The fighting comes as the future of international security

support to Somalia has grown increasingly precarious.



A new African Union peacekeeping mission replaced a larger

force at the start of the year, but its funding is uncertain,

with the United States opposed to a plan to transition to a U.N.

financing model.