3 killed and 3 vehicles hijacked in two dawn attacks in Mandera

BY ADOW JUBAT

Mandera County: The death toll of the renewed inter-clan clashes pitting two rival Somali clans in Mandera and Wajir counties has reached 15 as skirmishes spread.

Three more people were killed Monday morning in Takaba district in yet another revenge attack as the two rival clans came out with sophisticated weapons which were apparently kept hidden during the recent disarmament processes.

The hostilities between the Garre and Degodia tribesmen started on Tuesday over a disputed a piece of 5-kilometre stretch of barren land dividing the two semi-dessert counties at Ogaralle area in Wajir. The fighting has now leaped into Mandera County an d spreading like a bush fire in a dry season.

In the latest incident, three people were killed and dozens others seriously injured after armed clan militia descended on a sleepy remote Garre village between Barike and Forolle villages at 6 am on Monday, according to the police.

Speaking to The Standard on phone, Mandera county police Commander Noah Mwivanda said the three were killed in a dawn raid by the assailants.

He said the attackers, suspected to be Degodia clansmen, indiscriminately showered the sleeping villagers with bullets killing the three and leaving four othesr with serious gun wounds.

“The heavily-armed attackers later retreated and our officers, under the command of the Takaba OCPD, are in hot pursuit of them. We assure the members of the all communities that the Government will defeat the perpetrators of the renewed heinous inter-communal skirmishes,” he said.

On Friday, five people were killed in a gun ambush and five others seriously wounded at Bulla Tawakal some seven kilometres from Rhamu, after suspected Degodia clan bandits targeted a Nissan pickup carrying Garre passengers traveling from Takaba to Mandera town.

The county police chief said those injured were been treated at Takaba District Hospital for the gun wounds.

The last deadly skirmishes, sparked off on Tuesday last week after suspected Garre gunmen ambushed labourers working on a 25-kilometres stretch of road. The project is being funded by the Wajir county government.

The Garre community accuses the Wajir county of a provoking the latest rounds of inter-clan bloodlettings between them and their rival community by encroaching five kilometres, into their communal land in Mandera county.

Elsewhere, a suspected Al-Shabaab militia car hijacked three vehicles ferrying the narcotic leaves Miraa at a road between Arabia and Mandera town.

Mandera County Police Commander Noah Mwivanda said heavily armed militia suspected to be Al-Shabaab intercepted the four land cruisers carrying the Miraa from Meru to Mandera at a road junction near Omar Jillow village, which is some 15 kilometres from Mandera town.

He said, “The Somali gun men made away with three vehicles with its cargo and burnt down into ashes the fourth one after the driver attempted to reverse and speed off.”

In another incident, a team of the county security team heading for a peace meeting to reconcile members of the fighting Degodia and Garre communities were gun ambushed by suspected Al-Shabaab militia some 5 kilometres from Mandera town early Monday morning.

The county police boss said nobody was injured in the ambush, since the security details scouting the team repulsed the attackers with fierce fire power.