At least 14 people were killed and 11 others injured early Tuesday in a suspected ‘al-Shabaab’ terror attack in Mandera county close to the border with Somalia.
Mandera County Commissioner Alex Ole Nkoyo confirmed the early morning attack, saying that unknown gunmen hurled grenades into a residential building located about 2 km from Mandera Town.
Fourteen people mostly construction workers, were killed in the dawn attack.
@RedCross and @EMS_Kenya are evacuating the injured to Mandera County Referral Hospital.
They (Attackers) shot in the air several times and even used petrol bombs to carry out the attack.
Nkoyo said the area is largely inhabited by quarry workers, mainly non indigenous people.
“These were Al Shabaab from the natrure of the attack. They used explosives and guns,” Nkoyo said.
“Most people were sleeping in tents outside their houses because the weather condition in Mandera is very hot,” NKoyo added.
Sources said suspected ‘al-Shabaab’ militants first hurled several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) before opening fire on the quarry workers who were sleeping at that time.
The government late last year ordered quarry workers to leave the quarries and move to town for security reasons after 36 of them were killed in December.
