Eight killed in Al-Shabaab attack near Kenya-Somalia border

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Eight people – two police reservists, five construction workers and a driver – were killed in northeast Kenya on Tuesday in an attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants near the Somali border, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Mandera County Police Commander Robinson Ndiwa said the attack occurred at about 7 a.m. in Hagarsu, along the Mandera-Arabia-Fino-Lafey-Elwak road on the Kenya-Somalia border.

“We lost seven people including two National Police Reservists after they were ambushed by suspected Al-Shabaab militants. Their vehicle was sprayed with bullets as they headed to work,” Ndiwa told the Daily Nation .

Residents reported seeing heavily armed assailants block the road before opening fire on the vehicle.

Ndiwa said the motive for the attack had yet to be established.

“We don’t know the motive yet, as the area has remained calm for quite some time. We have launched investigations as combined security agencies pursue the attackers, who retreated into the nearby thickets,” he said.

The area recorded its worst terror attack on Dec. 2, 2014, when 36 quarry miners, all adult men, were ambushed and killed in their tents as they slept near the quarries.

Tuesday’s attack was also not the first to target road construction workers along the Mandera-Arabia-Lafey road. On Dec. 22, 2019, at Hagarsu Bida, Al-Shabaab militants used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to blow up road construction machinery belonging to Abdulahi Khalif Company, valued at Sh39.8 million.

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