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UPDATED: Shabaab raid police camp, steal voter registration kit


Al-Shabaab militants attacked an Administration Police camp in Mandera early Thursday.

The Thursday 1.25am raid happened at the camp in Arabia.

Speaking to the Nation on phone, Lafey Deputy County Commissioner Eric Oronyi said the unknown number of heavily armed attackers also vandalised a Safaricom mast in Khoror Farar at around 3am.

Mobile phone communication has been cut off in the area.

“Communication has been cut off and we cannot confirm the exact damage but things are not good,” Mr Oronyi said.

Interior Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said all 21 police officers who were stationed at the camp are well.

They made a tactical retreat as militants attacked in waves, Mr Nkaissery said.

He further confirmed that three guns, a police land cruiser and a Biometric Voter Registration kit were taken away by the attackers.

REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement from Kenya Defence Forces in Mandera was dispatched to the area.

The attack came days after Inspector-General of police Joseph Boinnet together with his key lieutenants visited officers in camps in the area.

It also happened barely a week after Al-Shabaab killed nine Kenyan soldiers in camp in Kulbiyow, Lower Jubba, Somalia, some 18 kilometres from the Kenyan border.

The numbers of the soldiers killed in the attack is, however, disputed, with Al-Shabaab putting it at over 60.

100 TROOPS

On the dawn of January 15, 2016, Kenya also lost over 100 troops when Al-Shabaab overran a KDF camp in El-Adde, Somalia.

Kenyan soldiers are fighting the rag-tag militia under the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) that has lost hundreds of soldiers in camp attacks.

Amisom is a 22,000-strong force comprising soldiers from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.