Two police injured in Kenya’s border town attack

MANDERA, Kenya (Xinhua) -- Two police officers were injured on Friday night when a police station was raided by a group of attackers, local police said Saturday.
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Two police injured in Kenya’s border town attack

The two at the Fino police camp were left with bullets lodged in the stomach and hand respectively. They were scheduled to be flown to Nairobi for further treatment.

Fino, southwest of Mandera town and is a few kilometers to the border with Somalia, has been the target of cross-border attacks by the insurgents.

The station was surrounded by militants before they fired at them, said Bernard Kosgey, one of the injured, on Saturday in hospital while receiving treatment. According to him, they were using bazookas and other explosives.

"We were on duty and saw a tipper lorry coming from the Mandera side before the lights went off," said Kosgey with his left hand heavily rubbed in a cotton sweater.

He said the militia first begun by shooting at the Fino Administration Police Camp to keep them indoors before ascending onto the police station.

"They were more than a hundred people attacking us because bullets were coming from all the directions forcing us not to respond by firing only to hide," said Kosgey.

The police called the Kenya Defence Force(KDF) on time but none showed up, and after two hours Kenya Police Reservist (KPR) arrived for reinforcement, he said.

Mandera Deputy Police Commander, Bosita Omukolong said no arrested has been made. He said the station is badly damaged as the militia launched explosives into the station burning the police tents.

The officers at station are housed in tents making it difficult to have a good cover in case of such a situation.

There have been intelligence reports indicating that either of the police stations along the Kenya-Somali border within Mandera County is to be attacked with newly established Omar Jillo KDF camp being the main target.

Last week, the local county officers were bombed by unknown people who partially damaged parts of the building. No arrest has been made so far.

Despite the closure of the Kenya-Somalia border in 2011 by the Kenyan government, Mandera town has experienced a number of attacks from the Al-Shabaab militants with the police blaming it on the porous border and poor equipping of the force.

The country has been subjected to successive explosives attacks by Al-Shabaab operatives in the country following the onslaught by Kenyan soldiers on the Al-Shabaab in Somalia after the militia staged a series of attacks along the Kenyan coast.

Since the Kenya military incursion into Somalia, several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.

Xinhua News Agency

 

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