On Monday, March 25, four people were murdered in an explosion that occurred at a small hotel close to a police station in northeastern part of Kenya.
The explosion happened in the town of Mandera, which is close to Somalia’s border.
According to Samwel Mutunga, the town’s police commander, two of the injured were in serious condition and would be transported by air to the capital, while the other two were admitted to a hospital in Mandera.
“We had a total of 15 people injured and in the process of taking some to hospital, including police officers, we lost two at that particular moment, one officer and one civilian. As they were being attended to, we lost two more police officers,” Mutunga said
Police said that the improvised explosive device that caused the explosion had been planted at the hotel and was detonated a a crowd of people sat down to eat breakfast.
Investigators suspected the extremist group al-Shabab for the attack.
“We have launched investigations and I am assuring you we are going to bring these perpetrators to book. We have some leads.”
The abduction of two Cuban physicians in April 2019 was the most recent Al Shabab incident in Mandera.
Kenya announced reopening of the border last year with Somalia but later postponed because of extremist attacks.
