Security sources reported to the Emirati newspaper Al-Ain News that 20 people were killed, including civilians and soldiers, as a result of a huge bombing in the city of Beledweyne in Hiran Governorate in central Somalia.

Security sources explained that the bombing was carried out by a truck bomb driven by a suicide bomber, after he was prevented from infiltrating the city, adding that “the number of deaths and injuries is likely to rise.”

The car bomb exploded in a government customs center and a security checkpoint, and caused destruction in homes, shops, and gas stations.

Local residents said that the city of Baldwin “does not have medical centers to treat the wounded, which increases the risk of doubling the victims of the terrorist attack.”

The Somali authorities did not immediately comment on the bombing, while no party claimed responsibility for it, but the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement carries out such attacks from time to time.

Baldweyne is considered the incubator of the popular resistance that supports the Somali army in its operations against the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement.

Since August 2022, the Somali army, alongside local clan groups, and with the support of African Union forces and American air strikes, has been waging an offensive against the Al-Shabaab group loyal to Al-Qaeda.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group has been waging a bloody insurgency against the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu for more than 15 years.

Since taking power in May last year, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pledged to rid the country of terrorist militias.

In 2011, Al-Shabaab militants were expelled from Mogadishu, but they remained spread across large rural areas from where they continued to launch attacks against security and civilian targets.

Postponing the downgrade of “Atmis”

Yesterday, Friday, the Somali government requested to postpone the planned reduction of some African Union forces for a period of three months, after “several setbacks” it suffered in its war against Al-Shabaab, according to what was stated in a letter the government sent to the United Nations.

In the letter written by Somalia's National Security Advisor, Hussein Sheikh Ali, to the United Nations, he requested a postponement of the second phase of the troop withdrawal, which requires the departure of three thousand soldiers by the end of September.

The letter stated, “The Federal Government of Somalia officially requests a technical suspension of the process of withdrawing three thousand soldiers from the African Union Transitional Forces in Somalia (ATMIS) for a period of three months.”

A diplomatic official confirmed the authenticity of the message. Another source familiar with the file confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the Somali government has submitted this request.

But a source in the African Union said that the bloc “did not receive this request,” explaining that the withdrawal will continue according to the scheduled schedule.

In early July, the African Transitional Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) announced that it had completed the first phase of reducing its forces with the aim of eventually handing over security duties to the Somali army and police.

She said in a statement that a total of seven bases had been handed over to the Somali security forces, which allowed the withdrawal of two thousand soldiers at the end of June.

The Atmis mission included more than 19,000 soldiers and police from several African countries, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, but all of them will have to be withdrawn by the end of 2024.