Fresh attack in Kenya's coastal Lamu region

Friday, July 11, 2014

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Nairobi - Unidentified gunmen raided a village near Kenya's restive coastal town of Lamu early on Friday, Kenyan officials said, the latest in a string of attacks in the region.

Officials said more than 10 raiders struck at Pandanguo village, about 40km from Mpeketoni -here close to 50 people were massacred in an attack last month - stole guns from police reservists and torched houses and other buildings.

The Kenyan Red Cross said there were no reports of any casualties in the latest attack.

"The heavily armed attackers raided the village at around 01:00 today [Friday] and disarmed six police reservists," Kaviha Charo Karisa, a local area assistant chief, told AFP.

"They burnt several houses, including a school and a dispensary, as well as robbed people in the village. There were no casualties suffered during the attack," he said.

String of killings

It comes just days after a gang attacked and burnt offices of a conservation organisation in the area.

On Monday, armed attackers raided Amu Ranch, a community-run wildlife reserve working to support local peoples, animals and traditional ways of life, some 16km west of the coastal town of Lamu.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest assaults, but the attacks the follows a string of killings in the same area in which at least 87 people have been killed, according to the Red Cross.

Somalia's al-Qaeda linked Shabaab have claimed responsibility for earlier attacks, saying they were in retaliation for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as part of the African Union force supporting the country's fragile and internationally-backed government.

However, police and government officials have blamed the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), a group that campaigns for independence of the coastal region.

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