AMISOM Donates Police Station in Baidoa to Help Stabilize the Region

ADF STAFF

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) recently donated a new police station to the Somali Police Force in Baidoa, as terrorist attacks persist in the Horn of Africa nation. With a population of nearly 301,000, Baidoa is the largest city in the country’s southwestern Bay region.

The Dutch government funded construction of the Bakiin Police Station, to which 30 officers will be assigned. AMISOM police also will use the station as the mission continues to train and mentor the Somali Police Force (SPF).

“This station is located in a strategic area, on the edge of the town, which is significant for security of the city as far as exit and entry is concerned,” Maj. Gen. Amin Mohamed Osman, Bay Regional Police commander, said. “This will also be a main checkpoint to monitor and apprehend those intent on disrupting peace in our town.”

Just weeks before officials unveiled the new police station in July, the extremist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a land mine attack that killed four people in a Baidoa restaurant.

AMISOM’s peacekeeping efforts in Somalia date back to 2007, and despite gains in much of the country, violence continues. AMISOM troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda — and police officers from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia — have been instrumental in implementing the Somalia Transition Plan, a guide to handing over security responsibilities to Somali forces before AMISOM’s mission there is complete.

In May, the African Union authorized AMISOM to maintain the deployment of more than 19,000 troops and more than 1,000 police officers in Somalia through February 2021.

Somali security forces have had recent success against the insurgents.

Just hours after Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed named new naval and infantry commanders in late June, the country’s special forces liberated four villages in Lower Juba, killing six al-Shabaab fighters in the process.

Earlier in June, a top al-Shabaab official, Bishar Mumin Afrah, surrendered to the Somali National Army in Hiran, a city of 2.5 million people in central Somalia, according to hiiraan.com, a Somali news site.

But the terrorists have proven difficult to eradicate.

On August 5, al-Shabaab fighters attacked a national army base and killed eight Somali Soldiers in Daynuney, just south of Baidoa. Later that day, insurgents targeted a military vehicle in a roadside blast, wounding several Soldiers. Somali Soldiers killed eight al-Shabaab fighters that day.

“We have foiled an attempted attack on our base by al-Shabaab terror group,” Mohamed Omar Sheikh, a Somalia National Army commander told local media. “The group suffered heavy casualties, and the base is still under our control.”