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Four killed by bandits in northern Kenya

13 June 2013 18:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Armed bandits on Thursday raided a sleepy village in northern Kenya's County of Mandera and killed four people from the same family, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Mandera South District Commissioner Moses Ole Tutui said the four family member- two women and two young girls were shot dead by heavily armed bandits believed to be from the Degodia clansmen at Burmayow, a remote village 140 kilometers from Elwak town.

"The village was raided by assailants believed to be numbering over ten at around 6: 30 a.m. and open fire on the villagers," the government administrator told Xinhua by telephone. He said the four family members were at the time seated outside their huts.

Ole Tutui said the attackers later fled toward the Mandera North and they were been pursued by a combined security personnel from three districts of Mandera South, Mandera West and Tarbaj district in Wajir County, which shares there borders at the attacked village.

The killing of the four which comes barely a day after six other people were killed in gun ambush at Qooqae village some 56 km from Takaba town, has pushed to 37, the number of those killed in two months old incessant inter-clan fighting between the Degodia and Garre Somali pastoralists communities in Mandera County.

More than 10,000 families from the both warring clans were rooted out of their homes in Banisa and Rhamu districts since the conflict started two month ago after six people from one of rival clan were killed in Rhamu town by their protagonist clan.

According to Ahmed Aliow, a survivor from the deadly gun attack on his Burmayow village in Mandera central constituent, the armed raiders surrounded the village before spraying bullets into the village arbitrarily.

The hostilities between the two warring clan spilled off from March 4 general election, where the Garre community by their numerical strength captured all county positions of Senator, Governor, women rep and the slot of six MPs leaving the Degodia and other minority clan empty handed politically.

"The attacked village is predominately inhabited by the Garre community, which makes the attackers believed to the rival clan of Degodia," Ole Tutui said.

The government administrator said enough security personnel were be deployed at the area to ensure there is no further attacks on the pastoralists families noting that Mandera South district has been peaceful from the ongoing clan skirmishes that torn Mandera West and North constituency.

Northern Kenya is a remote and arid region which borders Somalia to the east and Ethiopia to the north.

The marginalized region is sparsely populated - most people are cattle herders - and usually it is poorly policed and as a result incidents of banditry and cattle rustling are frequent.

Both Garre and Degodia have communal presence and have sophisticated armed militia in Ethiopia who has been used in clan fighting in the horn of Africa country.