*LATEST UPDATE: By Joseph Akwiri: MOMBASA Kenya (Reuters) - About 500 families in the northern coastal region of Kenya have fled to nearby camps or left the area after gunmen killed 29 people over the weekend, Kenya Red Cross said, the latest in a series of deadly attacks in Lamu County.
A Russian tourist has been shot dead in Kenya's port city of Mombasa.
Gunmen attacked government offices, torched a church and executed men in two small towns in Lamu County on Saturday night. About 65 people were killed in two similar raids in June in Mpeketoni town and a nearby village, in the same county.
Somali Islamist group al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for all four attacks but the government has suggested local politicians were behind them.
The exodus of people from their homes highlights a lack of confidence in the government's ability to halt the upswing in assaults on the coast and protect settlements.
Wariko Waita, spokeswoman for the Kenya Red Cross, said her agency was still assessing needs of the 500 families.
"Obviously many need medication, food, water, warm clothing like blankets, and counseling,” she said.
"Some are coming to our temporarily established camps while others have decided to leave the area completely for safety, and have gone to their family and friends outside the area," she added.
Lamu County police chief Ephantus Kariuki said the attack could have been prompted by disputes between rival ethnic groups fighting for resources on the coast.
Long-standing land disputes have fuelled tensions between traditional coastal communities, President Uhuru Kenyatta's Kikuyu group, who mostly come from up country, and others. Rivalries between ethnic groups over land are common elsewhere in Kenya as well.
But diplomats and analysts say al Shabaab may have still had a role, even if local operators were also involved.
Jane Njeri, a Kikuyu from one of the towns attacked over the weekend, said she spent Sunday night in a corridor of a nightclub where many other women and children sheltered.
"For now we want to find a rescue camp and seek refuge there," she said. "My husband was among those killed in the attacks on Saturday and we are very scared."
One Kenyan military source said some families had turned up outside a military base in Lamu county. "We cannot allow them into the camp because our rules forbid it but we cannot send them away either," the officer told Reuters.
Others like Patricia Wangare, a mother of two who has a farm near Mpeketoni, said she felt threatened as a Kikuyu.
"It is very unsafe especially for us who are not natives," she said. "I have witnessed more than 10 people I know closely die in the recent attacks and I don’t want to be the next victim."
(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Edmund Blair and Ralph Boulton)
----------A Russian tourist has been shot dead in Kenya's port city of Mombasa.
"It is unfortunate the lady who was shot has succumbed to injuries," Mombasa's deputy divisional police chief Tom Okoth said, confirming the woman's nationality as Russian.
Police said the woman was shot as she toured Fort Jesus - a 16th century Portuguese-built fort and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
She was with two other people when three gunmen opened fire and grabbed a bag containing cameras, phones and other personal belongings.
Separately, gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two separate areas on the Kenyan coast, the Red Cross said.
Kenya's interior ministry said the death toll had increased from a previously reported figure of 13.
Nine people lost their lives at the Hindi trading centre in Lamu county, near the scene of attacks in which 65 people were killed last month, the Red Cross said on Twitter.
At least 20 people died in a second attack was carried out in the Gamba area of Tana River county, but a interior ministry spokesman said the death toll could rise further.
Officials said a group of 10-15 men struck at Hindi last night.
Hindi is situated 15km from the town of Lamu, and close to the town of Mpeketoni, which was nearly destroyed in one of the attacks in June
The Lamu county commissioner said the attackers targeted some government offices and some properties were burnt down.
The Red Cross said three people were taken to hospital with injuries, from both areas, adding another one was reported missing in Gamba.
The Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, which has carried out a series of attacks in neighbouring Kenya, said earlier it had staged an attack yesterday in the coastal area.
The militants attacked the upscale Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi last September, killing 67 people.
The wave of gun and grenade attacks along the coast and in Nairobi has hurt the tourism business, which is a key source of foreign exchange.
*NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Twenty-two people were killed in overnight attacks by gunmen in two counties on the Kenyan coast, where al-Qaida-linked militants last month claimed responsibility for killing 65 people, the Kenya Red Cross said Sunday.
The Saturday night attacks took place in the towns of Hindi in Lamu county and Gamba in Tana River, Kenya Red Cross chief Abbas Gulet said. Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for the attacks.
According to the Lamu county commissioner Njenga Miiri, a group of about 15 gunmen raided the Malamandi village of Hindi and started shooting at residents. The gunmen also attacked Gamba police station, Kenya's police chief David Kimaiyo said.
Hindi is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Mpeketoni where dozens were killed in an attack last month, while Gamba is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Mpeketoni.
Police said 13 people were killed in Hindi, while in Gamba nine others were killed and one person was missing.
The nine victims in Gamba included five inmates said to be non-Muslim, who were killed when the gunmen attacked the police station, said a senior police officer who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. Three other inmates escaped with the gunmen.
The officer said the gunmen got to the police station by car-jacking a truck and killing its three occupants. Five police officers were wounded in the attack and one officer was killed, he said.
Kenya has suffered a spate of gun and explosive attacks since deploying its troops in Oct. 2011 to fight al-Shabab militants.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack last month on the town of Mpeketoni on the Kenyan coast and another attack the following day on a nearby village. Despite that, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and the interior minister have blamed local political networks for those attacks and said they were planned locally — assertions that have been met with skepticism.
Late last month police arrested Lamu Governor Issa Timamy and charged him for murder, forceful eviction of population and terrorism charges in connection to the Mpeketoni attacks.
The attacks come as tensions continued to rise in the country over a planned mass protest by the opposition on Monday to urge the government to convene national talks over topics including security, increasing costs of living, corruption and the disbandment of the electoral authority.
Church leaders have warned Monday's planned protest could further split the country along tribal lines.
No comments:
Post a Comment