Two Dead, Three Injured as Suspected Al-Shabaab Militants Attack Bus in Mandera
Two people died while three others were injured Monday morning after a bus travelling from Nairobi to Mandera was attacked by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.
The 7am attack happened between Kotulo and El-Wak in Mandera County, Deputy County Commissioner Julius Otieno said.
“Initial reports indicate two people have died and three injured. Those injured are the driver and two passengers. The militants fled after the attack. Our team is on the ground tracking down the attackers,” Mr Otieno told the Nation by phone.
Mr Otieno refuted reports that the bus had been hijacked.
He said the attackers asked the passengers to alight from the vehicle and attempted to separate Muslims and non-Muslims.
“They were trying to identify who were Christians and who were not. They told the non-Christians to return to vehicle,” Mr Otieno said.
Mandera Governor Ali Roba who spoke to the Nation by phone from outside the country said the local passengers stood together with the non-locals refusing to separate and dared the attackers to either kill all of them or leave.
"This forced the militants to leave in a hurry fearing retaliation by residents from nearby villages.
“The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other by insisting that the Al-Shabaab should kill them together or leave them alone,” Mr Roba said.
Mr Roba said intelligence reports from local pastoralist communities indicate that more than 200 Al-Shabaab had crossed into Kotulo from Somalia in the past three weeks.