Eight people are feared dead after about 200 heavily armed men from Ethiopia carried out the latest of the ongoing attacks in northern Kenya.

The attackers, who were dressed in military fatigues raided Banisa, Mandera County, and targeted shops, villages, a school and a dispensary.

According to a police report, the assailants shot indiscriminately and used heavy artillery, including mortar bombs, during the raid that began at dawn and lasted several hours on Tuesday. At least six bombs are said to have been used.

The assailants were dressed in uniform that resembled jungle fatigues used by Kenya Police and the Kenya Defence Forces.

The attack was marked by wanton destruction of property, including the burning of 20 “semi-permanent” houses, a similar number of manyattas, and a dispensary in which medicine and equipment of unknown value were destroyed.

Shops were broken into and stock looted. At Guba Primary School 15 solar panels were vandalised.

“The value of the lost property is yet to be established,” the report says. The attackers blocked all roads leading to the area, making it inaccessible to security officers.

The identities of those feared dead were yet to be established as their bodies had been removed for burial to an unknown place by the time police got to the scene, according to the report.

“The number of those injured is yet to be confirmed.”

The attackers made their way to the Anti-Stock Theft Unit police camp but were repulsed after a fierce exchange of fire.
The latest attack targeted areas where the Degodia clan lives.

The police report said the attackers, though from Ethiopia, belong to the rival Garreh clan.

Traverse Kenya-Ethiopia border

Members of both clans traverse the Kenya–Ethiopia border and perennial conflict in the region always result in involvement of all, regardless of the country of origin.

The current wave of attacks began at Rhamu Trading Centre on Saturday, when two people were killed. In less than four days, the Garrehs of Ethiopia had joined the conflict to help their tribesmen.

Senior police officers from Nairobi and neighbouring counties were dispatched to the area on Tuesday.

An MI-17 helicopter left Kenya Police hangar at Wilson Airport on Tuesday and had not flown back by Thursday.

On board were the General Service Unit (GSU) Commandant Joel Mboya Kitili, Kenya Police Airwing Commandant Rodgers Mbithi and the Director of Operations at Administration Police Mwangi Nderitu.

The pilot was ordered to fly high, a precautionary measure in case the attackers used the heavy artillery to shoot down the plane.

On Monday morning, suspected gunmen from the Garreh clan attacked Rhamu, Dimtu and Olla villages in Mandera North and destroyed a dispensary, shot dead a camel, and burnt at least 15 houses.

The attackers were later repulsed by the Administration Police’s Rural Border Patrol Unit. Later that day, five people were injured after a grenade was thrown at a barber shop in the town.

Some 300 people fled their homes and sought refuge at Rhamu Police Station and at the sub-county headquarters. Police said one house was burnt.
On Sunday, armed Garreh and Degodia tribesmen engaged police in a “fierce gun battle” before officers from Rhamu responded.

On the same day, about 200 armed men from the rival clans ties engaged in a gunfight in Rhamu Town, where several people were injured.

Daily Nation