DRIVER INJURED IN MANDERA MORNING BLAST

BY ADOW JUBAT

A driver of a tractor was slightly injured on Wednesday morning in Mandera town in North-Eastern region bordering Somalia, after an explosive device planted on the road under construction went off under the impact of the ear mover.

Confirming the incident, the Mandera County police commander Noah Mwavinda said, the driver was working on the Rhamu-Mandera road in the center of the town, when his tractor incidentally disturbed an explosive device buried inside the graded road.

He said, a suspect was also arrested on the scene of the explosive was taken to Mandera police station for more interrogations.

He said the resultant powerful explosive caused by the discretely planted incendiary threw the earth mover off the road and injuring the driver who was on the tractor alone at the time of the incident.

“The explosive was secondary to another one, which occurred some minutes before three 3 meters from the second one that injured the driver slightly” said Mwavinda who spoke to Frontier leaks on phone.

He said, the driver was rushed to Mandera referral hospital where he is undergoing treatments adding that the victim was stable.

Security officers has embarked on breathtaking security operation to dig into the 2 kilometers stretch road under construction in bid to look for more possible unexploded improvised devises that could lying secretly under the road. 

Mandera town has suffered numerous explosive attacks that were usually laid hidden on the busy Rhamu-Mandera road, that pass the center of the border town. The road is usually busy daylong and is currently under construction from funding by the County government.

Last month Mandera governor Ali Ibrahim Roba escaped death miraculously after a powerful homemade explosive planted on his way some minutes, a head of his incoming motorcade went off injuring one of his officials mildly.

On April this year another unknown armed men shelled the County government offices causing an extensive damage on one side of the magnificent building. 

The unidentified heavily armed fired several powerful mortar propel grenade at the county government offices, but nobody was hurt in the incident since it was early in the day and none of the county workers had reported for the day duty at the time of the shelling.

An on Thursday last week Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in Mandera town, damaging a private car.

The blast left the Prado vehicle's windscreen shattered and the bonnet slightly damaged, sending panic among residents in the town, which is smarting from inter-clan hostilities.

Three people in the vehicle escaped unhurt. The explosive had been planted on the roadside about 200 meters from the Rhamu bus stop, where Governor Ali Roba recently escaped an IED attack targeting him.

The Prado swerved off the road when it was thrown off balance by the impact. Police said the device was powerful enough to cause bigger causalities if it had hit its target.

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