Johannesburg, 3 September 2022 (dpa/MIA) - At least 20 people were killed in an overnight attack by the Al-Shabaab terrorist group on a convoy of vehicles in central Somalia, authorities said in a statement on Saturday. Four goods trucks and three passenger minibuses were set alight by militia just outside the Mahas district of Somalia's Hiiraan province. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on its radio station, Andalus, claiming that it has killed over 20 people and destroyed eight trucks. The group said they carried out this attack because of the involvement of local clan militias known as Macawisley who took up arms against Al-Shabaab. "Passengers were killed, wounded or just narrowly escaped on foot. Families were looking for their loved ones this morning," Abdifitah Hassan Afrah, a local politician and former governor of the province, told dpa. The vehicles, escorted by Somali authorities and African Union peacekeeping forces, were travelling from Beledwayne city, the regional capital. According to Somali military official Mohamed Bakaay, Al-Shabaab has intensified attacks on civilians in the last 48 hours in areas in Hiiraan and the neighbouring Galgaduud province. "The militants have destroyed several boreholes with bombs and set fire on homes and businesses in more than eight villages in both provinces," he told dpa. "And now they are ambushing civilians and transport vehicles on roads," he added. He said the Islamist group, with ties to al-Qaeda, is putting civilian lives at risk while the country is also struggling with severe drought. Al-Shabaab, which controls large swaths of the south and centre of Somalia, has recently lost several villages in Hiiraan to the Somali army and other local militias. Somalia's new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has vowed to carry out a massive military campaign to end the insurgency that has sought supremacy in the east African country for about 15 years.