Kenya: 2 police officers missing after al-Shabaab raid

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI (AA) – Two police officers are missing and several wounded after some 50 al-Shabaab militants stormed a police station early Thursday in northeastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia, as well as stealing guns and ammunition, Kenyan police told local media.

Confirming that they carried out the attack, al-Shabaab militants on their propaganda radio station Radio Andalus claimed to have killed a number of Kenyan police officers during the raid.

“Armed Mujahideen troops last night attacked a base of unbelievers in Kenya in Harissa County, Haamey region. Several police officers and soldiers were killed and others,” said a statement from the Somali-based, al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group.

Twelve out of the station’s 14 police officers have so far been accounted for, according to a senior officer from the police station who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Amref Health Africa – formerly the African Medical and Research Foundation – on Thursday confirmed that it had airlifted two Kenyan police officers to Nairobi after being seriously wounded during the attack. Three others were rushed to Dadaab Hospital, also in Garissa county.

A local businessman from the area told Anadolu Agency that witnesses also saw the militants take police uniforms from the station.

Kenyan authorities have deployed additional forces to the area to help secure the station and hunt down the gunmen.

Garissa County is just a few kilometers from the porous Kenya-Somali border.

In April 2015, al-Shabaab militants stormed Garissa University in Garissa town, killing more than 140 people, mostly students. The attack is still the deadliest witnessed on Kenyan soil from the Somali-based militant group.