Five quarry workers killed, two injured in suspected Al-Shabaab attack in Mandera
The assailants ambushed the workers at their site, sparking fresh concerns over rising insecurity in the Khalalio-Hareeri area.
Five quarry workers were killed and two others injured in a suspected Al-Shabaab attack in Bur Abor Village, Mandera East, on Tuesday morning.
A police report indicates that the assailants, about 10 in number and armed with AK-47 rifles, ambushed the workers who were on transit along the Burabor-Karo quarry road and ordered them out of the matatu they were travelling in.
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They were asked to give out their national IDs, and in the process, five were shot dead.
The other 13 passengers reportedly escaped and have since been accounted for.
The driver of the matatu and his co-driver have since been arrested to assist with the probe.
Speaking after visiting the injured at Mandera Level Five Hospital, Mandera Governor Mohamed Adan Khalif condemned the incident and blamed local security agencies for not acting on intelligence information shared before the attack.
He said the deceased persons were people the county relied on in the construction industry.
"Two were injured, one has been treated and gotten discharged, and one is in the theatre as we speak, and we shall get an update from the medical officer attending to the victim," Mohamed said.
"First, I'd like to share my condolences with the families, friends and relatives of those who lost their lives this morning. What happened was very unfortunate, we are pained, we are grieved as people of Mandera county," said the governor, noting that Al-Shabaab attacks in the county have increased in the last three months.
Five quarry workers were killed and two others injured in a suspected Al-Shabaab attack in Bur Abor Village, Mandera East Tuesday morning. The assailants ambushed the workers at their site, sparking fresh concerns over rising insecurity in the Khalalio-Hareeri area. pic.twitter.com/MjxNx2YNRE
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"You are aware of the five chiefs abducted and just released several days ago. Several NPRs were killed, several attacks were done in hotels within Mandera town and Elwak, and it's unfortunate again that we woke up this morning to witness a massacre of innocent lives who were just going about their business to build Mandera, Kenya and their families," he said.
The governor further called on security officials deployed in Mandera not to despair and act on information from locals.
"Most information shared is not acted upon; that is the biggest challenge. There is no lack of intelligence information; we have issues with processing the information received, and this is most unfortunate. This is a call to security managers, we have to go back to the drawing board and replan how we can protect these communities, county and country," he added.
The governor, however, called on the locals not to allow the incident to divide them along religious, ethnic or clan lines.
"My appeal is to the entire communities of Mandera, because Al-Shabaab aims to divide communities along religious, clans or ethnical lines, this narration of saying that we are attacking non-locals or non-Muslims is just a way of dividing Kenyans along those lines because what they are doing across the border, one kilometer away from us, at the Somali side is killing the people," he said.
"Those are not non-Somalis, those are Somalis and Muslims so when they cross the border they try to drive the narrative that they are targeting non-locals or Christians and I think that is the ideology we must fight as the communities in Mandera because we don't have non-locals in Mandera, we have the 7th community and I want to assure them that the county government will stand with the families that have lost their kin," he said.
Felix Oluoch, Chairman of the 7th community in Mandera, said the response from the police and county government was timely, even as plans to transport the bodies back home for burial kick off.
"We are asking members of the public, more so those of the 7th community, to stay calm as help is on the way. We have made arrangements and the bodies will be airlifted to Nairobi in the next hour," he said and urged them to remain alert.
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