Six people were killed Monday in Lamu, a region in eastern Kenya bordering Somalia. A local official said that rebels from the jihadist group Al-Shabaab are believed to be behind the attack.
According to Irungu Macharia, one of the victims was shot dead, and the other five were killed when their house was set on fire. “Our security forces are looking for the perpetrators, and we ask for the support of the residents,” the official said.
In January 2020, Al-Shabaab had warned Kenya “it would never be safe” and called for attacks on US interests. A few days later, fighters from the Somali terror organization attacked a military base in Kenya. The base – “Camp Simba” – is used by both Kenyan and American troops. One US soldier and two private Pentagon employees were killed in the attack. The same month, three more people were killed in an attack on a bus travelling from the tourist island of Lamu to the southern town of Malindi.
Kenya has been the target of several deadly attacks since a military intervention launched in southern Somalia in 2011 to fight Al-Shabaab. For example, in September 2013, 67 people died in an attack on a shopping centre in the capital Nairobi and 148 people were killed in an attack on the University of Garissa in April 2015.
The terrorist group Al-Shabaab, linked to al-Qaeda, aims to overthrow Somalia’s internationally-backed federal government and control large areas of Somalia’s countryside.
