12 soldiers were killed during the al-Shabab raid at the Janale Military Base of the African Union force in southern Somalia.

Ugandans have been mourning the death of 12 of its soldiers killed at the Janale base of the African Union force in southern Somalia on Tuesday, September 1, 2015.  Uganda is one of the countries that has contributed soldiers to form the 22,000-strong African Union force battling the Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Somalia.

Ten of the 12 murdered Ugandan soldiers have been flown back to Uganda, BBC cited Colonel Paddy Ankunda, the Ugandan military spokesman as saying. Al-Shabab militants say they killed 70 African Union troops in Tuesday’s raid. Other reports, BBC said, put the number of soldiers killed at the Janale base some 90 km south-west of the Somali capital, Mogadishu at between 20 and 50.

The AU peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM, has not yet released casualty figures for Tuesday's attack, which came roughly a year after al Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a U.S. air strike, Reuters reported. Somalia-focused diplomatic sources had initially said the toll was expected to be "very large" lending some credence to the figure claimed by al Shabab, Reuters reported. One source however, said on Thursday, September 3, 2015 that fewer people may have been killed in the attack than previously feared, although the number would only be clear when AMISOM announced it. Colonel Ankunda did not give details of the other two Ugandan soldiers who were killed.

While condemning the attack, AMISOM in a statement said, "The AMISOM base at Janale, Lower Shabelle Region in Somalia came under attack from al-Shabab militants today. The militants used a car loaded with explosives to trigger the attack and to facilitate their forced entry into the camp after which they engaged our soldiers in a gun-battle.” The statement further specified that, “Although our troops undertook a tactical withdrawal following the initial vehicle borne explosive attack, they have since consolidated and regained full control of the base," Al Jazeera quoted.

Despite the killing of Ugandan troops that form part of the AU peacekeeping force, Uganda is determined to keep on fighting al-Shabab militants. “We won't relent in our efforts to pacify Somalia, it's a mission we must accomplish no matter what," Colonel Paddy Ankunda reportedly told Reuters. The attack on Janale base was the latest frequent assaults on AMISOM's bases or convoys by the Islamist group, al-Shabab which wants to topple Somalia's Western-backed government.