KENYA: Actions against Kenyan and Somali security forces

The masses are fighting everywhere, even on the African continent. In the following we want to give a short overview of actions in Kenya.

On Monday, March 02, a skirmish between troops of the Federal Government of Somalia and units of the autonomous government of Jubaland took place. Jubaland is an autonomous but internationally not recognized state in eastern Somalia. Independence was proclaimed in 1998 during the Somali civil war. Since then, the Somali government has been fighting against the independence efforts.

During the operation on March 03, in the town of Mandera, in Kenya, near the border with Somalia, the Jabuland Minister Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur, alias Abdirashid Janan, was to be arrested. Abdirashid Janan had escaped from prison in January in the Somali capital Mogadishu. The operation failed and a Somali soldier was shot dead and eleven others wounded. Even from the neighbouring town of Bula Hawa, which is three kilometres away on the Somali side, eyewitnesses reported of hearing several explosions and gunshots.

On 25 February, Al-Shabaab militants attacked a camp of Kenya's national police reserve forces in the city of Garissa, also in the east of the country. Fifteen Kenyan security forces were injured during the fighting, and two training centres, two communication masts and several barracks were destroyed.

On 23 December, suspected members of the Al-Shabaab attacked a construction site, also in Mandera, and set fire to several construction vehicles.

In mid-October, ten members of a Kenyan paramilitary police unit died in a bomb attack, also in Garissa. The security forces were on patrol when they hit an improvised landmine with their SUV.