Mandera::The Kenyan government has issued a stern warning to Somalia militant group, al-Shabaab, saying any provocation will be met with the full force of the law.

Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia said on Thursday that more security officers have been deployed to the border town of Liboi and other neighboring areas to keep away the militia group that has been fighting with troops of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

“Al-Shabaab should keep their war in Somalia and stop interfering with our security here.

“Leave Kenya alone and if you try again we shall fight you to the end,” he said.

“I don’t know why al-Shabaab keeps on threatening our security at the border with Somalia.

“We are not at war with them, why can’t they direct their war to their country.”

Kenyan security forces remain on high alert at the Kenya-Somalia border after al-Shabaab militants engaged them in a fierce gun fight on Wednesday as they attempted to cross over into Mandera.

The attackers hurled a rocket-propelled grenade at police station but no injury was reported in the incident that occurred on Wednesday at dawn.

Authorities in the area said police managed to repulse the attackers and chased them away.

Kenya’s border with Somalia has been officially closed since January 2007, but civilians fleeing the upsurge in fighting between the TFG and the al-Shabaab militia in south-central Somalia have been arriving in Kenya in rising numbers.

Since 2007 the Kenyan government has sporadically tried to return asylum seekers to Somalia against the advice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

However, Kimemia said there are enough security forces manning the porous border to ensure the common frontier is safe.

He said the government has closed the main boarder as part of measures to address the militia menace.

“They tried to cross the border on Tuesday night but our security forces were able to repulse them.

“We will not allow them to threaten peace here.

“They should keep their war in Somalia,” he said.

The Tuesday night attack left Kenyan General Service Unit (GSU) officer injured in a night.

The officer who has a serious leg injury is still hospitalized.

The injured officer was in the company of colleagues on patrol when they reportedly came under sniper attack from the border town of Dobley where the militants are in control.

North Eastern Administrator James Ole Seriani said the officers in patrol sighted a parked vehicle on approaching and they were shot at.

“The vehicle disappeared toward Somalia.

“We suspect they were either al Shabaab or smugglers.

“The officer who has bullet injuries is out of danger,” Seriani said.

The Horn of Africa nation is in the throes of one of the worst upsurges in violence in recent years.

Offensives by the transitional government in alliance with militias and Ethiopian forces have targeted al-Shabaab-controlled areas beyond Mogadishu, the capital, in south-central Somalia.

The majority of Somalis fleeing violence in Somalia are housed in Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya.

Dadaab was originally built to house 90,000 refugees, but it now has about 330,000.

The camp facilities are under huge strain, and UNHCR, donors, and the Kenyan government has been locked in negotiations for nearly two years over the need for more land to expand the camps.

MANDERA (Xinhua)

Comments

comments