By Halima Athumani
KAMPALA
Uganda Defense Forces Commander Gen. Wamala Katumba confirmed Friday that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) – in which his troops constitute the largest contingent – would soon march on Somalia's port of Barawe, the Al-Shabaab militant group's last stronghold.
"We are left with one main target: Barawe, which, if we take, would be a big blow to Al-Shabaab because it's the group's economic nerve center," Katumba told a news briefing in Kampala.
AMISOM is made up of more than 22,000 uniformed personnel – from Uganda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia – deployed across six sectors of south and central Somalia.
The Ugandan contingent, numbering a total of 6,223 troops, remains the largest in AMISOM.
It is based in Sector I, which includes the Banadir (in which capital Mogadishu is located) and Middle and Lower Shabelle regions.
According to mission commanders, the Ugandan contingent will take part in the upcoming offensive against Barawe.
Gen. Katumba said African troops had captured much of the territory from which Al-Shabaab militants had been operating.
"The empty space is getting smaller and smaller; I think very soon we may see a bigger blow to them if we take what we consider to be their last strong point," he added.
The port of Barawe is believed to be Al-Shabaab's main source of revenue, generating millions of dollars for the group from the illegal sale of charcoal to the Middle East.
It also serves as an entry point for weapons and a base for the group's leaders.
In a recent blow to the militant group, Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed by a U.S. drone strike earlier this month in the Lower Shebelle Region, in which Barawe is located.
Responding to a question from Anadolu Agency about when the assault on Barawe would take place, Katumba said: "I can't go into operational details. What is important is that we shall take it."
He added: "How we shall take it, that is a detail – but we are going to take it, because it's a must-take."
"We can't put deadlines on this, but we are planning – you will be told when it's done. That's our main target," the general asserted.
Last month, the Somali government and African peacekeepers launched a massive joint military operation – "Operation Indian Ocean" – against Al-Shabaab, which has since seen the group lose most of its strongholds.
Somalia, a long-troubled country in the Horn of Africa, has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
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