AMISOM’s military engineers have completed a four-day training aimed at arming troops with knowledge on countering increased threat of using improvised explosive devises (IEDs) by the extremist Al-Shabaab militants. The Somali-based Al-Shabaab militants have scaled up attacks from across the regions of Somalia, with an aim of disrupting the already much-delayed elections.
The training comes at a time Al-Shabaab threat and use of IED has increased significantly. The use of IEDs has become a weapon of choice especially for the Al-Qaeda associated militants in Somalia and sporadically on Kenyan prefectures bordering the volatile Horn of Africa nation.
According to AMISOM sources, the training kicked off on Tuesday, 22nd March and ended on Friday, 25th March in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. The training was attended by 20 military engineers from various AMISOM contingents and outposts as well as some staff offers with roles linked to countering the threat posed by IEDs.
AMISOM’s Chief Force Engineer, Colonel Saheed Sadiq noted that, the training aimed at increasing troop’s awareness, participation and understanding of threat posed by IEDs and then coming up with strategy and ways to mitigate the much-employed enemy tactics and procedures
Engineer Sadiq highlighted the importance of the training, underscoring the evolving nature of the enemy’s tactics, thus prompting the need to re-evaluation on strategy laid forth in countering evolving threats of IEDs and in turn updating the troops on new trends in the network so that they are able to operate efficiently and deliver on the AMISOM’s mandate.
The training was jointly organized by AMISOM Training Cell and the United Kingdom Mission Support Team (UKMST). The main goal/objective of the training was to building the capacity of the participants to identify and dispose of already emplaced IEDs, and mitigate the threat in time.
The Commanding Officer of the United Kingdom Mission Support Team, Lieutenant Colonel Torcail Stroud-Caules on his part reiterated the importance of the training also citing the increased use of IEDs targeting military assets especially in Somalia. He noted that there is need to understand the entire IED cycle so that in turn can identify ways to counter the threat at whatever level.
Lieutenant Colonel Stroud-Caules called on participants to consistently ensure that every member on the counter-IED network while out in the field is aware of their specific role to minimize casualties due to IED attacks noting that the troops now were much aware of the tactics that terrorists can use against our troops on the ground.
A comment from one Kenyan infantry officer who also took part in the training noted that “most of the casualties have suffered are due to the emplacement of IEDs, so the training was helpful. ,”
