Voices from combat front line

Abdi Kadir Ali could not tolerate the air strikes and gun shots Kenyan defence forces have been directing at Salagle Town of Lower Juba in Somalia.

“The warplanes are covering the skies and because of the sounds of missiles landing on the ground and the scaring picture of the machines hovering above us, we cannot sleep. So we decided to cross the border into refugee camps in Kenya,” Mr Ali, who was accompanied by his wife and their newly born baby, told reporters at Abdi Sugow cutline near the Kenya-Somalia border.

Husband gone missing

They were in a group of Somali refugees fleeing their country on Friday when a group of journalists bumped into them at the cutline, which connects Kismayu and the refugee camps at Dabaab in Kenya.

Fatuma Mohammed from Dobley, another town of Lower Juba, said her husband had gone missing following an encounter between Kenyan forces and Al-Shabaab.

“It was three days ago when we saw Kenyan air planes hanging on top of us as they covered the whole village. It was so scaring as we could hear loud sounds of continuous gun shots and people started running away,” Ms Mohammed recounted.

Like Salagle, Dobley is also one of the towns controlled by Al-Shabaab but TFG forces and their Ras Kamboni brigade have managed to take it after an offensive with assistance of the Kenyan defence forces.

“It is Kenyan heavy artillery that is helping us to scare away the Al-Shabaab because once they see the air strikes, they cannot stand and watch,” the spokesman of TFG and Ras Kamboni Brigade Abdi Nassir Serar told journalists during an interview at his office in Dobley on Saturday.

At a temporary structure acting as a ward for injured soldiers outside Dobley General Hospital, members of TFG were nursing their injuries.

One of the TFG soldiers was Aden Omar who was nursing bullet injuries on his two feet.

“I was guarding the village, which we had taken over from al-Shabaab, but they regrouped and managed to chase us out. During the face-to-face encounter, I was on my feet, but I managed to creep on the ground and moved into a near-by bush where I hid,” 30-year-old Omar said.

Staged an offensive

He said he stayed in the bush for four days before the Kenyan forces came and staged an offensive at the village before taking over Tabta from al-Shabaab.

“The Kenyan soldiers bombarded the area and the loud sounds of missiles could be heard all over. The soldiers in warplanes saw me and came to my rescue,”

Dobley General Hospital used to be one of the well-equipped facilities before it was destroyed during a fierce encounter between the forces.