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Saturday, December 19, 2009 Residents in the Somali border towns of Elwaq and Beled Hawo confirmed to APA that border crossings stopped late Friday as Kenyan military have been put on a high alert along 600 kilometers border line between both countries. “The Kenyan soldiers are refusing people from the Somali side of the border to go into Kenya and I am one of those who used to go to Mandera for business affairs daily but today I remained in Beled Hawo,” a Somali businessman Mohamed Mumin told APA by telephone from Beled Hawo. “Only children going to the Kenyan side for education have been allowed to cross over the border” Mumin said during a telephone conversation early on Saturday morning. He said that some people have secretly entered into Kenya earlier on the day through Biya duwan village about 5 kilometers east of Beled Hawo, but Kenya soldiers thwarted their attempts to cross the border. The Kenyan security ministry said that its troops are on a high alert and have been stationed along the border to protect terrorists in the lawless Somalia from entering into its territory. Last month militias belonging to Al shabab, the Al Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia seized a key town near the Kenyan border and some of them are believed to have entered Kenya from the Somali side of the border after they defeated another Islamist rebel group Hezbal Islam which formerly controlled the border cities on the Somali side. | |
