News
Kenya: 17 killed in Church attacks – Somali Islamists al-Shabaab susptected
Ndolo told reporters he wanted an investigation carried out before assigning blame to the group many people in this region assume is at fault: al-Shabaab, the most dangerous militant group in Somalia.
Another security official said two attackers walked up to the two policemen guarding the church, shot them at point-blank range and took their rifles. The official spoke only on condition he wasn’t identified because he is not allowed to speak to media.
The police were guarding the church because of the increasingly dangerous security situation near the border with Somalia and because Somalia’s Islamist militants have made Christian churches a common target.
The Vatican spokesman condemned the “vile” and “disgraceful” attacks and said they showed the necessity of defending the rights of Christians to celebrate their faith and “oppose irresponsible acts that fuel hatred among religions.”
Such a heinous attack could be a copycat strategy from Boko Haram, the group of Islamist militants in Nigeria that has made gruesome, deadly attacks against Christian churches one of their hallmarks.
Garissa is one of two major Kenyan towns near the border with Somalia. It lies just to the west of the Dadaab refugee camp, which houses nearly 500,000 Somali refugees. On Friday armed attackers kidnapped four international workers with the Norwegian Refugee Council and are believed to have taken them over the border into Somalia.
A top security official suggested after that assault that the attackers came from within the camp. Kenyan officials have long complained Dadaab and its inhabitants are a threat to Kenya’s security. Kenyan officials hope to see the Dadaab refugees move back to Somalia, but they cannot force the refugees to move without breaking international law and courting wide international condemnation.
