Bariire City Recaptured from al-Shabaab by Joint UPDF (AUSSOM) and SNA Troops after 3-Week Battle:

The strategic town of Bariire, Somalia, was today retaken from the Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujāhideen, simply known as al-Shabaab, by joint UPDF troops and Somali National Army (SNA) troops after an intense battle that lasted over 3 weeks.

Bariire is the second town in the country’s lower Shabelle region to be liberated by the UPDF from the violent militant group after Sabid-Anole fell in June, 2025.

The UPDF troops are operating under the transitional African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), a transitional mechanism that is designed to eventually handover responsibility for security in the country to the country’s security forces led by the SNA.

The presence of the resurgent and internationally recognized terrorist group to areas close to Mogadishu had threatened to upend an otherwise relatively stable security situation in the country’s main city in recent years, thus warranting the currently ongoing counteroffensive against the Islamic fundamentalist organization by joint AU and SNA troops.