Kenya’s security was on Wednesday put on alert after heavy fighting broke out near the border with Somalia and Ethiopia.

It pitted groups allied to the al Qaeda terror network in Somalia against Ethiopian combatants but there were fears the fighting could spill over into Kenya.

Residents of Mandera, near the border reported hearing the sound of gunfire but no casualties were reported.

Police said the terrorist faction had pitched camp at Bulahawa, on the Kenya– Somalia border.

Police commissioner Mathew Iteere said the fighting involved groups in neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia.

“It does not involve us. Only the sound of gunfire can be heard from our side. It has not spilled to Kenya and there is no influx of people running away from the fighting,” he said.

Mr Iteere said security has been beefed up at the border to handle any security threat. In the past, warring terrorist groups have extended their fighting to Kenyan soil.

A joint security force of Kenya Army Rangers and Special Forces, as well as the General Service Unit and Administration Police, is patrolling the vast border.

Killed or injured

In past incursions by foreign militants, security officers have either been killed or injured. The assailants also commandeered Kenyan vehicles to Somalia and held their victims for ransom.

The Somalia-Kenya border has since been closed and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, last year asked Kenya not to stop refugees running away from fighting.

According to UNHCR, Kenyan authorities at Border Point One camp at Mandera ordered more than 8,000 Somali refugees to cross back into Somalia last year.

That, according to the agency, has put the lives of the refugees, who are mainly women, children, and the elderly, at risk, because some had crossed into the no-man’s land between Kenya and Somalia.

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Daily Nation

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