Shebab militants attack convoy in northern Kenya

Somalia’s Shebab militants launched a cross-border raid into northern Kenya on Friday, ambushing a convoy of Kenyan officials in the northeast of the country and wounding several people, officials said.

A least six people were hurt in the attack, one of them critically, and were taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals, the Kenya Red Cross said.

Mandera county governor Ali Roba, who was travelling in the convoy, escaped unharmed, Kenyan media reports said.

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels said they carried out the attack.

“A Shebab commando unit attacked a Kenyan convoy travelling from Mandera to Nairobi,” said Shebab military spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab. He claimed the militants destroyed two vehicles, hijacked another and captured weapons.

Roba’s convoy was previously ambushed in October 2014.

Mandera, in Kenya’s far northeast, borders Somalia and is plagued by insecurity. The area has been the scene of a string of recent Shebab attacks.

In November Shebab gunmen held up a bus outside Mandera town on the same stretch of road as Friday’s ambush. The militants separated passengers according to religion and executed 28 non-Muslims. Ten days later 36 non-Muslim quarry workers were also massacred.