Google pulls down an Al-Shabaab video on the El-adde attack

“The terms and conditions on what you upload on YouTube are clear. If you upload anything that infringes on Human Rights, we will definitely bring it down. The video was immediately brought down before anyone could watch it. We applaud those who take a chance to report such videos before they go viral,” said Dorothy Ooko, Google Communications and Public Affairs Manager East and Francophone Africa.

The propaganda video was on the attack on the Kenya Defence Forces camp at El-Adde, Somalia, where the militia claims to have killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers during the dawn raid on January 15.

According to details presented, the video starts by showing a stockpile of military hardware, including vehicles, which the group claims to have seized from the KDF during the attack. It also showed a suicide bomber driving a vehicle loaded with explosives that go off at the entrance to the camp.

The video then shows the attackers go in to the camp shooting and they seem to face little resistance. Captured in the documentary are also images of the militia executing injured soldiers, some of whom attempted to retreat from the camp in an armoured personnel carrier.

Some Kenyan soldiers were taken captive and interviewed on camera. They were ordered to narrate how the attack took place. All of them admit the enemy overran the camp, with one of them appealing to President Uhuru Kenyatta to withdraw the troops from Somalia.

After bombs in the vehicle explode, heavy gunfire ensues as the terrorists, clad in military fatigue and orange headbands, storm the camp, firing rocket-propelled grenades. The terrorist group does not say how many soldiers were captured. One of the captives said there were 200 Kenyan soldiers in the camp at the time of the attack. After the raid, the insurgents head to El-Adde Town, which appears to have been deserted by the locals.

This however, is not the first video to be pulled down by Google. In 2015 they pulled down a couple of videos including a detailed video by the Militia on the Mpeketoni terror attacks.

The El-Adde attack is the largest single attack against the Kenyan military in Somalia that happened in January 2016 leaving an undisclosed number of KDF Soldiers dead. This has led to the revival of the #IStandWithKDF, on twitter where Kenyans took to show their solidarity with the KDF soldiers.