12 people have been admitted to the Mandera Referral Hospital following a deadly attack along the Kenya Somalia Border in Mandera County.
Governor Ali Roba confirmed the attack, and revealed that the Kenyans injured were collateral in a deadly gunfight between Somali factions in Beled Hawo, along the Kenya-Somalia border.
Two of the injured patients suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack. Out of the 12 patients currently admitted at the medical facility, 9 are Kenyans.
Three of the Kenyans injured are members of a family whose house was reportedly hit by a missile.
Governor Roba revealed that the situation in the county remains tense as county medical officers attend to the casualties.
The incident happened at a time when Kenya wrote to the African Union (AU) expressing concerns over the renewed fighting in the border town of Bula Hawa, in the Northern Gedo region, South West Somalia.
Kenya warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the region which is likely to result in a massive exodus of refugees into the country should the fighting persist.
“Kenya’s primary concern is that the renewed fighting engenders large-scale displacement of civilians inside Somalia and increasingly generates large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers to Kenya, therefore aggravating the already dire humanitarian situation in Somalia and in the refugee camps in Kenya,” the letter by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs read in part.
KBC reported that the fighting experienced in the region, which has persisted for months since the beginning of 2020, was between Somalia National Army and regional forces from Jubaland.
Kenya called for the cessation of gunfire in the region and a restoration of calm along the Kenya-Somalia border.
Kenya noted that if the fighting persists, it could undo the milestones gained in the fight against terrorism in the region, further destabilising the region.
