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Burundi Confirms Death of 10 Soldiers in Somalia Militant Attack

Burundi Confirms Death of 10 Soldiers in Somalia Militant Attack

Burundi’s army said 10 of its soldiers died in an attack by Islamist militants on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia this week.

The statement is a rare confirmation by nations who contribute troops to the counter-insurgency in Somalia that they have suffered casualties. Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked group that carried out the May 3 raid, claimed it killed 173 soldiers.

In addition to the 10 soldiers who died, 20 others were wounded and five others are missing, Burundian army spokesman Colonel Floribert Biyereke said in a statement Thursday in the commercial capital, Bujumbura.

Burundi is the second-largest contributor of troops to the African Union-led counter-insurgency operation in Somalia, after Uganda.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.