NAIROBI: At least six police personnel were killed in Kenya while four were injured in an attack on a police camp by suspected militants in Garissa county in the country’s east on the border with Somalia, police said.
The assault which occurred on Sunday was carried out by suspected fighters from Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-allied Al-Shabab group, said a police report sent out to the media.
Al-Shabab frequently carries out cross-border attacks in the area against both military and civilian targets.
FASTFACTS
• Al-Shabab frequently carries out cross-border attacks in the area against both military and civilian ets.
• Militants attacked a c amp housing police reservists and ‘used assorted weapons to overrun the camp,’ the report said.
• Six fatalities have been confirmed with four injured and in hospital.
Attackers from the group launched an assault around dawn on a camp housing police reservists and “used assorted weapons to overrun the camp,” the report said.
“Six fatalities have been confirmed with four (4) injured and in hospital.”
On Tuesday, the US Embassy issued an advisory, telling Americans not to travel to some places in Kenya including Garissa and other counties along the border with Somalia due to threats of terrorism.
Al-Shabab has been fighting for years to overthrow Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule in the Horn of Africa country.
Elsewhere, militants killed at least 44 civilians and severely injured 13 others during an attack on a mosque in southwest Niger, the country’s Defense Ministry said.
The attack occurred on Friday during afternoon prayers in the village of Fombita in the rural commune of Kokorou, which is near the tri-border region of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali known as the epicenter of an insurgency in West Africa linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The Defense Ministry blamed the attack on the EIGS group, a Daesh affiliate.
Militants encircled a mosque, where people had gathered for prayers and carried out a “massacre of rare cruelty,” it said.
The attackers then set fire to a market and houses before retreating, the ministry said.
Troops deployed to the scene provided a provisional death toll of 44 civilians, with 13 severely injured. Three days of national mourning have been declared.
The insurgency in West Africa’s Sahel region started when militants took over territory in north Mali after a 2012 Tuareg rebellion.
It has since spread into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso, and more recently into the north of coastal West African countries such as Togo and Ghana.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced as militants have gained groups, attacking towns, villages, military and police posts and army convoys.
The failure of governments to restore security contributed to two coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger between 2020 and 2023. All three remain under military rule despite regional and international pressure to hold elections.
Since the coups, authorities have turned away from traditional Western allies and sought military support from Russia instead.
