AL-SHABAAB POUNCED BACK KILLED 36 IN MANDERA

By Adow Jubat

At least 36 people were murdered in cool blood at a quarry site at Koromei, 10 kilometers from Mandera town on Tuesday morning by suspected Somali based Al-Shabaab militants.

The attack bore a similar hallmark by a previous one, where 28 passengers commuting on a bus from Mandera-Nairobi were killed ten days ago 45 kilometers from Mandera town along Arabia-Mandera road.

All the victims were non-Muslims working at quarry site outskirts of Mandera town. Mandera has about 10 active quarry sites, where building blocks are excavated by workers mainly from other parts of the country.

Somali community, which are predominate in North-Eastern region despise quarry excavations as second class assignment.

Confirming the incident Mandera County police boss Noah Mwavinda said, the quarry workers were attacked by the assailants suspected to be Somali based militia at 2a.m on Tuesday morning.
He said militia raided, the make shift tents, where the quarry workers were staying in for the night, after a daylong work.

“The victims were all shot on the head in a similar circumstance like in previous attack” he explained.
The victims were made to line up and most of them were shot on the head while some were beheaded said a survivor who declined to be named.

Police say they were attacked as they were sleeping in tents at the site at around 1am.
The attack happened just four hours after three men, all armed with AK47 rifles attacked a club in Wajir where they shot dead one person and injured 13 others.

The masked assailants raided Ngamia Club shouting Allahu Akibar (God is great), about 800 metres from Wajir police station and shot indiscriminately at the revelers killing one person dead and 12 others sustained gun wound injuries.

Three of the injured persons are critical, 7 are in stable conditions, while two were treated overnight and discharged this afternoon.

After the club attack, the gunmen raided Kenya Power Sub-station but were repulsed by the officers who were guarding the area.

On November 22, a Nairobi-bound bus was attacked and 28 passengers were shot dead at Omar Jilo in Mandera County. Thirty four people were shot dead in close range while two of their
colleagues were brutally beheaded in early Tuesday morning Mandera
massacre.

According to Mandera Township ward representative Feysal bdinoor who went to the scene, thirty four of the victims were shot on the head after forced to lay belly down before they were shot at the head from a close range, while two others were beheaded seemingly using a sharp object.

The Mandera town MCA said the diseased have all been taken to military camp in Mandera town where they were expected to be airlift to Nairobi since there is no mortuary to preserve bodies.

The Mandera killings comes in the wake of mounting pressure from opposition and civil society groups  to presidents Kenyatta to make changes in the security sector.

“It’s very unfortunate this has happened again to our county, the main aim of these heartless people is to create religious animosity between peace loving Kenyans,” He said.

The incident has forced many non local families, who went back to their residents after government assurance to join 52 civil servants who rose camped at the local military camp in protest to compel the government to yield to their demands of had been airlifted to Nairobi to join their families for December holiday.

Mandera East sub-county commissioner Elvis Korir said a combined security was sent onto the ground to pursue the attacks.