Security
forces in northern Kenya have launched a major operation to
flush out bandits who Wednesday raided a settlement in Mandera
District and killed 18 people.
The early
morning attack on Eldanaba centre on the border between Mandera
and Wajir districts also left nine others seriously injured.
Murder
victims included 13 women and three children. Police said
the attackers, believed to be over 100 and armed with AK-47
standard assault rifles and G-3 automatics, attacked the settlement
which is mainly inhabited by Garreh and Degodia clansmen.
A security
contingent from the army and administration police who intervened
during the attack were repulsed by the bandits.
Eyewitnesses
said the attackers gathered women and children into houses
and then set them on fire. Their charred bodies were later
taken to a local morgue for post-mortem examination before
they were buried in a mass grave.
The bandits
reportedly retreated to Wajir district after their orgy of
killings. Mandera district administrator, James ole Serian,
confirmed the attack which he said was "inhuman". Speaking
from Mandera town, on the Kenya-Ethiopia border, Serian said
that the raiders, suspected to be from a rival clan, left
corpses and several body parts strewn across the settlement.
He said
six people, who fled during the attack, could not be accounted
for. On learning of the attack, the administrator said, security
personnel started tracking the bandits who fled towards Wajir,
close to the Somalia border.
Wednesday's
attack comes barely a week after North- Eastern provincial
commissioner, Maurice Makhanu, brokered a peace pact between
the two traditional rival clans.
Police
suspect the incident was a retaliatory attack, following another
one last week when the Garreh and Degodias attacked the Ajuran
causing heavy casualties.
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