Four people, including three police officers, were killed Monday in an attack attributed to radical Islamists Shebab in a town in eastern Kenya bordering Somalia, according to police cited by AFP.
The explosion of an improvised explosive device occurred in a hotel about 200 meters from a police station in Mandera around 10:20 a.m. (8:20 a.m. French time), local media reported.
According to police, around ten other people were injured.
“We suspect the involvement of Shebab in this incident
,” said a police source.
“A major security operation is underway as well as an investigation into the involvement of people with whom Shebab works locally
,” she continued.
Attacks
According to local media, two police reservists were also killed last weekend in a raid in Lamu county, another border area with Somalia.
A group affiliated with al-Qaeda, the Shebab has been leading a deadly insurgency for more than 16 years aimed at overthrowing the Somali government supported by the international community and establishing Islamic law.
Since its military intervention in southern Somalia in 2011 and then its participation in the African Union force in Somalia (Amisom, now Atmis) created in 2012 to combat this insurgency, neighboring Kenya has also been targeted by this group, which also recruits from local youth.
Deadly attacks targeted the Westgate shopping center in the capital Nairobi in September 2013 (67 dead), Garissa University in April 2015 (148 dead) and the Dusit hotel complex, also in Nairobi, in January 2019 (21 dead). .
Low-level attacks still take place regularly in Lamu, Mandera and Garissa counties, located along the 700 kilometers of border between the two countries.
Since August 2022, the Somali government has been leading an anti-Shebab offensive in central Somalia, with clan militias and air support from the American army and Atmis.
After allowing territories to be reconquered, it has stalled in recent months.
The Shebab are now carrying out localized counterattacks there.