One killed in suspected Al-Shabaab attack on Mandera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One civilian has been killed in Mandera town near the border with Somalia after Suspected Al-Shabaab fighters and police guarding Governor Ali Roba’s residence clashed on late Monday night, official and resident said Tuesday.

The man, identified as watchman at a local primary school, was hit by a stray bullet as the police exchanged fire with the gunmen, according locals.

Mandera County commissioner Fredrick Shisia said at about 11pm, three suspected militia men dressed in hijabs were seen within Mandera town by security officers.

“They tried to stop a security vehicle attached to the governor that was on patrol and it defied leading to a shootout,”  adding, “They were dressed in hijab and the police took cover and started shooting and in process someone chewing miraa in the vicinity was hit by a stray bullet,” he said.

Locals said gunmen waylaid the officers at Bula mpya leading to gunshots and explosions were heard in the town throughout the night.

Police have since launched an operation to pursue the attackers believed to have escaped towards the Kenya-Somalia border.

Mandera has seen a wave of violence since Kenyan troops’s incursion into Somalia in 2011.