Al-Shabaab ambush kills eight near Kenya-Somalia border
Attackers blocked a road in Mandera County and fired on a vehicle carrying police reservists and construction workers to work.
Eight people, including two police reservists, five construction workers and a driver, were killed on Tuesday when suspected Al-Shabaab militants ambushed a vehicle in northeast Kenya. Mandera County Police Commander Robinson Ndiwa said the attack happened at about 7 a.m. in Hagarsu, on the Mandera-Arabia-Fino-Lafey-Elwak road near the Somali border.
Residents saw heavily armed assailants block the road before opening fire on the vehicle, Ndiwa said. He said the motive had not yet been established, and that combined security agencies were pursuing the attackers, who retreated into nearby thickets.
The area recorded its worst terror attack on December 2, 2014, when 36 quarry miners were killed in their tents. In December 2019, militants used improvised explosive devices to destroy road construction machinery at Hagarsu Bida, valued at Sh39.8 million.
Why it mattersRoad crews and police reservists travelling this stretch of the Mandera border road now face the same ambush risk that has already killed workers here before.