KENYA: Eight Africa Union troops treated in Mombasa hospital after being injured in fighting in Somalia

Record ID: 361762

  • Title: KENYA: Eight Africa Union troops treated in Mombasa hospital after being injured in fighting in Somalia
  • Date: 26th February 2011
  • Summary: MOMBASA, KENYA (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FEBRUARY 24, 2011) (REUTERS) AMBULANCES HEADING TO MOMBASA TOWN FROM MOI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WITH AFRICAN UNION (AU) CASUALTIES FROM SOMALIA VARIOUS OF SECURITY GATE AT MOMBASA HOSPITAL WHERE THE AU CASUALTIES WERE ADMITTED AMBULANCES PARKED OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL'S EMERGENCY WING AFRICAN UNION (AU) CASUALTY ON STRETCHER BEING WHEELED I
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4POC3FEKVZKT49D6QPAZEF7LN
  • Story Text: Eight African Union (AU) troops wounded in heavy fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu were transferred to a hospital in Mombasa, Kenya on Thursday (February 24).
    The AU soldiers received their wounds in an offensive against Islamist insurgents in which six other AU troops died on Wednesday (February 23).
    The Burundian contingent of AU troops was supporting Somali government troops who seized three militant bases along Mogadishu's industrial road that leads to the Bakara market, one of the main strongholds of the al Shabaab Islamist militant group.
    Doctors in Mombasa said the wounded AU soldiers were in reasonably good condition.
    "We have received eight patients, they are all fairly stable, but we have serious injuries some of them, but we have already categorised them and we will give them appropriate treatment." said Doctor Cannon Bebora.
    He said two of the AU soldiers needed respiratory support and the lower limb of one was "very badly mutilated."
    One of the AU casualties explained what had happened to him.
    "It started in the morning when al Shabaab attacked us, and I was shot at around 7 in the morning," he said.
    Somalia's beleaguered interim government has struggled to smother a four-year insurgency that has killed at least 21,000 people.
    Horn of Africa experts say the AU peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, is all that prevents the rebels from toppling the U.N.-backed interim government that has struggled to quash the four-year insurgency.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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