Wednesday July 9, 2025
Jubbaland Darawish soldiers patrol dense terrain in Somalia’s Lower Juba region during a security sweep targeting al-Shabab militants, July 9, 2025. The regional forces say the operation disrupted a planned attack on civilians.
Kismayo (HOL) — Jubbaland security forces say they foiled an al-Shabab plot to attack civilians after sweeping three villages in Somalia’s Lower Juba region before dawn Wednesday.
Commanders told HOL that soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the regional Darawish Brigade moved into Malkaadhadhaja, Qalowlaha and nearby hamlets after intelligence reports pointed to an imminent assault on local residents.
“We had firm intelligence on the enemy’s movements and struck first,” Lt. Col. Asad Ahmed Mohamed — widely known as Asad Garweyne — said by phone. He would not discuss casualties or arrests but called the mission “a preventive success.”
State-run Jubbaland TV later said Darawish units have disrupted multiple roadside-bomb and ambush attempts in recent months, crediting the raids with bolstering confidence in the semi-autonomous state that borders Kenya.
Al-Shabab, al-Qaida’s East Africa affiliate, still controls pockets of rural south-central Somalia despite losing several towns to a joint Somali and African Union offensive that began in 2023. Analysts say the extremists have shifted to hit-and-run tactics against regional capitals such as Kismayo, a strategic Indian Ocean port 310 miles (500 kilometres) south of Mogadishu.
Jubbaland authorities rotate mobile units across Lower Juba to block the insurgents from regrouping, officials said. The federal government has not yet released an independent account of Wednesday’s operation.