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Catastrophe

Al-Shabab blamed for deadly violence

October 6, 2016

The Kenyan government has blamed the Somali group al-Shabab for a deadly attack. The Islamist militant group has killed hundreds of people in the past three years and hammered the African country's tourism industry.

https://p.dw.com/p/2QvA6
Kenia Tote bei Anschlag auf ein Dorf
Image: Reuters/Stringer

A regional governor said Thursday that security forces in the Mandera region near the Somali border had fought off Islamist militants at a residential compound, leading to at least six casualties.

That region has often been targeted by al-Shabab, which says it will continue its campaign of attacks in Kenya until the Kenyan government withdraws its troops from Somalia, where they are part of a multinational African force.

Al-Shabab blamed for attack in Kenya

"If not for the quick response by our security forces, we would be talking of many more casualties now," the governor of Mandera county, Ali Roba, told Reuters by telephone. "From the nature and style of the attack, it will obviously be al-Shabab." 

The Daily Nation, a leading Kenyan news site, reported that the attack occurred early in the morning at a public works site. That information has not been confirmed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

But repeated attacks by al-Shabab in Kenya have killed hundreds and threatened the east African country's tourism industry. Most of the assaults have been in the northeast, near the long and porous border with Somalia, but the group has also struck coastal areas popular with tourists and the capital, Nairobi, where al-Shabab gunmen attacked Westgate Shopping Mall in 2013.

jar/kl (Reuters, AFP)