Somali forces retake coastal town of Kudhaa after heavy fighting with al-Shabab
KUDHAA, Somalia — Somali government troops backed by the elite Danab commandos and Jubbaland regional forces have retaken the coastal town of Kudhaa after heavy fighting with al-Shabab, officials said Thursday.
- Advertisement -
Military officials said the clashes began before dawn a day earlier when al-Shabab fighters launched an attack on the area in Somalia’s Lower Juba region. The battle ended early Thursday after government-aligned units surrounded the militants and overran their positions in and around Kudhaa, according to officials involved in the operation.
Security forces displayed the bodies of several al-Shabab fighters, including senior figures killed in the clashes, along with weapons and military vehicles seized during the fighting. Commanders leading the push said the militants had been fully driven out of the town.
Kudhaa sits along the Indian Ocean coast about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of the port city of Kismayo and has been repeatedly targeted by al-Shabab, which has waged a long-running insurgency against Somalia’s federal government. The town’s location in Lower Juba has made it a frequent focus of operations by federal and Jubbaland forces seeking to curb militant movements along the coastline and into inland settlements.
The participation of the Danab commandos, a highly trained unit within Somalia’s armed forces, and regional troops from Jubbaland underscores the coordination between federal and local authorities in Lower Juba amid ongoing efforts to secure strategic population centers. Officials said the sweep through Kudhaa followed a containment approach that aimed to encircle al-Shabab fighters before moving in to dislodge them.
Authorities highlighted the capture of weapons and vehicles as part of the battlefield gains. Such seizures can degrade militant capacity by reducing mobility and cutting off access to arms used in raids on towns and security checkpoints.
Al-Shabab has maintained a campaign of attacks in southern Somalia, targeting government positions, regional administrations and civilian areas as it seeks to undermine federal control. Kudhaa, because of its proximity to Kismayo and its coastal access, has often been on the group’s radar, officials said, necessitating repeated security operations to keep the area under government authority.
Officials announced the outcome of the operation on Thursday but did not provide a detailed tally of the fighting beyond stating that several militant combatants were killed and materiel was recovered. The claims could not be independently verified.
The retaking of Kudhaa is the latest reported advance by Somali and allied regional forces in Lower Juba as authorities aim to blunt al-Shabab’s ability to mount attacks and to reassert control in contested districts along the Indian Ocean corridor.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
