At least 35 people have been killed in heavy fighting between paramilitary regional forces and members of the Shebab jihadist group, an officer of a paramilitary unit said on Wednesday.

The officer disclosed that the fighting lasted for hours near the village of Sambelow, in the province of Mudug (central), and resulted in the death of at least 25 members of the organization and 10 paramilitaries.

For its part, Sebab announced through its propaganda channels that its members killed dozens of government soldiers.

Somalia’s military has been conducting large-scale operations against the jihadists for the past year and says it has retaken large swaths of the country’s central part of the Horn of Africa.

Shebaab (“Youth”), which pledges allegiance to Al-Qaeda, has been fighting Somalia’s internationally-backed federal government for over fifteen years to overthrow it and impose its own extreme version of it on the country. Islamic law. Despite operations by the federal army with the support of local forces, it continues to control vast areas of the country, particularly in the south.