Following clashes between the AU troops and militants, the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) regained control of the base.
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Captain Bilow Idow, a Somali military officer based in a town near Janale, said that the militants had cut off the base by blowing up a nearby bridge.
“Given the complex nature of the attack, AMISOM is now verifying the number of casualties and extent of the damage”, the statement said.
“After morning prayers we heard a big explosion followed by heavy gunfire in the AMISOM base”, Janale resident Ahmed Olow told Reuters.
Several al-Shabaab fighters were also killed, local official Abdiqani Hashi said. “Whereas Amisom troops are fighting al Shabaab insurgents, Somali soldiers will be fighting in Yemen and the whole world has to know”, he said.
It said that in total around 100 soldiers were “unaccounted for” after the attack.
The Shabaab has previously gathered the bodies of dead soldiers for use in propaganda videos of its attacks.
He also said the militants had seized the base.
Regardless of dropping most of its key strongholds in south and central Somalia, al-Shabab continues to hold out assaults on the federal government and African Union troops throughout the Horn of Africa nation. The ensuing armed fight lasted for more than an hour.
In separate statements, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia (SRSG) Nicholas Kay sent his deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones and to the people and governments of Uganda and Somalia.
In June, Shebab fighters killed dozens of Burundian soldiers when they overran an Amisom outpost northwest of Mogadishu.
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Al-Shabaab carried out an attack on an upmarket mall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in September 2013, killing at least 67 people.
