5 militants, 3 guards die as Somali forces counter jailbreak in Mogadishu

Somali security forces have thwarted an attempt by militants to break out of the main prison in the country’s capital, Mogadishu.

The militant inmates, using pistols and hand grenades believed to have been smuggled into the prison, attacked prison guards.

Security sources said the militant inmates fired on the guards and threw hand grenades before an exchange of heavy gunfire.

A spokesperson for the Somali Custodial Corps, Abdiqani Mohamed Khalaf, who spoke to reporters in Mogadishu, said three prison guards were killed and three others injured in the attack that also claimed the lives of five militants.

Khalaf said 18 other militants were injured.

He added that the bodies of the dead militants were displayed and were identified as Al-Shabaab terrorists previously sentenced to death.

A separate anonymous security source explained that all five inmates who were fatally shot had been convicted of involvement in militant bombings and smuggling of explosives.

“Four of them were on death row, and the fifth inmate was serving a life sentence,” the source added.

The Mogadishu Central Prison is not unfamiliar with holding members of the Al-Shabaab jihadist group who would attempt jailbreaks.

In August 2020, Al-Shabaab inmates obtained weapons and tried to force a jailbreak at the same facility.

Four prison guards and 15 mostly Al-Shabaab inmates were killed in that attack while one militant inmate escaped.

Prison authorities later learnt that in the 2020 attempted breakout, the weapons the militants used were smuggled in by family members who hid the weapons inside food and other items during visits to the militants.

The Al-Shabaab jihadist group, said to have links with Al-Qaeda, has been waging a bloody insurgency in Somalia for years.

It has carried out numerous bombings and other attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of the country for over 17 years in sworn attempts to depose the central government.

The militants have all the while faced counter forces mounted by the government which uses local clan militias.