Members of the al-Shabaab jihadist group killed at least 16 people in an attack on a Somali army base, authorities said Wednesday.

Two car bombs detonated at a joint training center of the Somali and Ethiopian armed forces in the town of Bardere (south).

At least seven of the dead were civilians, Mohamed Yusuf, the mayor of Bardere, told the German Agency yesterday afternoon.

He added that at least 20 other people were injured and that rescue teams were searching for survivors in the wreckage.

The Ethiopian federal army is operating in Somali territory as part of the African Union peacekeeping mission. Shebab (“Youth”), which belongs to the al-Qaeda nebula, has repeatedly targeted bases of this force.

The terrorist group, which has been fighting since the 1990s to topple the Western-backed federal government and impose its own extreme version of Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country, claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack through propaganda channels. her.

Sebab continues to control vast areas of the country, especially in the south, although the