SOMALIS BREAK A SQUARE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 25 April 1901, Page 4

SOMALIS BREAK A SQUARE.

New Expedition against Caravan

Robbers

The following official account of (lie attack on the British punitive exhibition in Ogaden, Somaliland, was published on February 271 h by (Lo Foreign Olllcc ; His Majesty’s Commissioner at Mombasa telegraphed on February 20th that lie had received a telegram from Colonel Ternan, commanding the Ogaden punitive force, to the following effect: On February IGtli, after advancing from Affmadu, some fifty-seven miles, lie halted the force near the edge of the Boran desert and formed square. The enemy attacked in force on three sides of the square while onr men were standing to their arms. The enemy tried to rush the camp, but after ten minutes were repulsed, though a few succeeded in breaking through at one corner, whore the field hospital was being pitched. Our casualties were:—Killed, Lieut-enant-Colonel Maitland and seventeen native rank and file and followers. 'Wounded, Dr Mann, slightly, twenty rank and file and followers, of whom four liaVe since died. The enemy lost 150 men.

On tlicir way to Affmadu, wliicli was readied on February 20th, several skirmishes with the enemy took place, in which they must have lost 50 to 100 men. Affmadu was to be present headquarters of the force. The behaviour of the troops is reported as splendid. A Router telegram from Alfmadu says the enemy fought with magnificent courage, making desperate charges. Another punitive expedition is to bo undertaken in Northern Somaliland, says Reuter’s Agency, against the “Mad Mullah,’’ who, with a large force, has for some considerable time past been raiding and pillaging the country along the Anglo-Abyssinian boundary. No details of this expedition, which is quite distinct from that now operating against the Ogden Somalis in Jubaland, arc obtainable, but it is known that Indian troops a.ie to be employed together with a specially raised Somali force. Fifty sepoys from Bombay are to be used for working the Maxims, and a small field hospital of 25 beds has also been ordered from India.

Bcrbera, a port on the Gulf of Eden, will be the base of operations.