by CYRUS OMBATI
Tuesday May 2, 2023
Six General Service Unit personnel were Monday injured after their vehicle was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device in Rhamu, Mandera County.
The officers were driving in an official vehicle headed for Mandera town on Monday evening when they ran over a set bomb.
Witnesses and police said two of the officers were critically injured.
They were all taken to a local hospital amid plans for evacuation to Nairobi.
It is believed the bomb was set up by al-Shabaab militants or their sympathisers who are operating in the area.
Response teams that arrived at the scene minutes later did not find those behind the incident.
Police said they are investigating the attack which is new after a long lull.
The lull was a culmination of the Ramadhan period during which almost zero incidents of attack were reported.
The area is near the Kenya-Somalia border which is usually breached by terrorists who attack and escape.
More personnel have been deployed in the area in efforts to tame the attacks.
Locals have always been urged to work with security agencies to tame the trend.
This is because such attacks cannot happen without the knowledge of the locals.
This comes amid heightened security following fears the terror group could be planning an attack after a long lull.
The border region has borne the brunt of repeated attacks from the militants who are at times aided by locals.
Somalia has not had a stable government after the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.
The area is near the Somalia border and the militants usually cross at will and stage attacks before escaping back.
Al-Shabaab terrorists have been attacking places in the region, especially in Mandera and Garissa counties after breaching security zones, which left dozens of civilians and security officials dead and wounded.
The terrorists have been planting explosives on the routes used by the security agencies.
Kenyan troops are in Somalia to pursue and suppress the activities of the terror group.