Ethiopian authorities have apprehended suspects linked to the brutal murder of four Kenyan fishermen near Lake Turkana at the Todonyang area in Turkana County.
The four were arrested by Ethiopia's Dassanech District officers following a security operation conducted on Friday evening along the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
During the impromptu operation conducted jointly with the Kenyan officers, the police also recovered a firearm that was in the custody of one of the suspects.
Reports indicate that the arrests came after police detained the parents of the suspects in a bid to pressure the four to surrender to the local authorities.
While confirming the information, the Ethiopian authorities in Dassanach urged their Kenyan counterparts to promptly engage them regarding the arrest of the suspects.
Videos and images obtained by Kenyans.co.ke showed a contingent of Ethiopian police officers escorting the suspects in a boat. Security has since been intensified in the area as investigations continue. The motive behind the killings remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, the suspects are accused of allegedly killing four Kenyan fishermen on Thursday, May 15, at around 4 am while the victims were busy preparing to cast their nets inside Lake Turkana.
Turkana Deputy County Commissioner George Orina, while addressing the press, revealed that the bodies of the four fishermen were discovered on Thursday morning lying beside the lake.
A local administrator who lives near Todonyang told journalists that on the fateful day, he heard gunshots at around 4 a.m., which he claimed could have emanated from Lake Turkana.
In a similar incident on February 23 this year, 20 Kenyan fishermen were killed on the same spot by heavily armed militia from Ethiopia. A witness claimed he saw the suspects shoot at the fishermen at dawn.
A police report disclosed that the killing of the 20 fishermen could have been a retaliatory attack after suspected Turkana bandits killed three Ethiopian fishermen earlier this year.
"After the attack, the militia seized the boats and fishing gear before they escaped to the Ethiopian side," claimed one of the fishermen who survived the attack.
