The UPDF troops are operating under the transitional African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), a transitional mechanism that is designed to eventually handover responsibility for security in the country to the country’s security forces led by the SNA.
A three-week intensive fire exchange in the Somali battle field has yielded results for the joint UPDF troops and Somali National Army (SNA), when they captured the strategic town of Bariire from the Harakata al-Shabaab al-Mujahedeen, simply known as Al-Shabaab.
Bariire is the second town in the country’s lower Shabelle region to be liberated by the UPDF from the violent militant group, after Sabid-Anole fell in June, 2025.
The UPDF troops are operating under the transitional African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), a transitional mechanism that is designed to eventually handover responsibility for security in the country to the country’s security forces led by the SNA.
According to UPDF Military Assistant to the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Col. Chris Magezi, the presence of the resurgent and internationally recognized terrorist group to areas close to Mogadishu had threatened to overturn an otherwise relatively stable security situation in the country’s main city in recent years, thus warranting the ongoing counter offensive against the Islamic fundamentalist organization by joint AU and SNA troops.