Tuesday, 27th September 2011
The scenes appear to be coming from movies.
In Moyale, Kenya, Ethiopian militiamen believed to be from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) cross into Kenya under the cover of darkness and mow down a dozen homesteads, killing more than ten people and injuring several others. Women and children scream but the attackers vanish through the porous border, taking with them a large herd of livestock.
On the other side in El-Wak, deafening sounds of gunfire shatter the afternoon calm in this dusty border town as Somali’s Transitional Federal Government soldiers exchange fierce fire with Al-Shabaab extremists just a few metres from the border with Kenya. When the guns fall silent, 11 of the combatants are dead in the 20-minute bloody battle. The injured are rushed to El-Wak hospital and the dead are quickly buried in Kenya.
Daring attacksAnd in Todanyang, Turkana County, armed raiders from the pastoralist Merrile clan in Ethiopia cross into Kenya in broad daylight and stage a daring attack on local villagers in an alleged revenge mission. They kill more than 20 people, including women and children, before escaping with hundreds of livestock.
Welcome to the horror movie that is the killing fields of Northern Kenya. Kenya appears to be under renewed attack from deadly militias from Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
New information pieced together by The Underworld from interviews with police officers who have worked in the country’s north indicates a delicate situation.
Raiders from the neighbouring countries have turned Kenya into a punching bag. They have been crossing into the country at will and committing atrocities as they wish.
And Kenyans living along the borders have resigned to fate. Here, villagers have witnessed so much violence that many of them no longer shudder at the sounds of gunfire.
Could it be that the rebel groups fighting Somalia and Ethiopia governments have silently declared war on Kenyans? The Al-Shabaab had earlier this year threatened a series of attacks on Kenya for allegedly helping to train the Somali Transitional Federal Government’s policemen and soldiers.
During Easter holidays, Police Commissioner Mathews Iteere issued a terror alert and told Kenyans to take extra caution after the militant group issued threats to Kenya.
The Oromo Liberation Front, which has been fighting the Ethiopian government since 1973 has often accused Kenya of collaborating with the Ethiopian government to attack their bases along the border. They have also alleged that Kenya was harassing Ethiopian refugees from the Borana community that form the majority of the Oromo population. Just like the Somalis, the Boranas are found in Kenya and Ethiopia.
In fact, the tension between the OLF and Kenya started in 1992 after a former Governor of Boran region in Ethiopia, Jettani Ali, was killed by gunmen outside his hotel in Nairobi. Members of the rebel group accused Kenya of allowing his killers to escape back to Ethiopia.
In May 1997, OLF sympathisers staged a demonstration in Nairobi after a lawyer, Mr Hussein Sasora, who had been following the death of Ali, was also killed by unknown people.
"The Borans were angry at the benign indifference of the Kenya Government in the face of wanton killings of their tribesmen by military incursions from Ethiopia. These recurring incidents have convinced many Boran leaders in Kenya that the Ethiopian agents are after the elimination of Borans both in Kenya and Ethiopia," said members of the Boran community living in the United States, in a statement.
Security experts are warning that the sustained attacks by militiamen from the neighbouring countries is worrying.
While Al-Shabaab attack from the North East, the Oromo rebels and the Merrile pastoralists have been raiding Kenya from the North as the Toposa tribesmen from Soth Sudan attack from the North western border.
A senior police officer who has been working in Northern Kenya told The Underworld that Al-Shabaab and OLF were now fighting their wars from inside Kenya, a situation he described as very dangerous.
"The militias are slowly but steadily establishing their secret bases in Kenya. We have seen incidences where innocent Kenyans have been killed in cross fires as Ethiopia and Somali soldiers pursue these rebels," says the officer who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Fluid situationHe added: "The situation along the Kenya-Somali-Ethiopia border is fluid. Civilians and Police officers have lost their lives and others have been injured by these rebels. The situation has been worsened by the fact that a big chunk of the Kenyan borders with these neighbours has not been marked, giving the attackers an advantage."
The officer said many residents of Moyale, Marsabit, Mandera and Turkana are dying from international aggression, ethnic violence and local banditry.
"Murders, abductions, torture, rape and the disappearance of citizens are common occurrences. The Government has boosted the security along the borders but more needs to be done. We need a new strategy to secure the Kenyan borders," he added.
The officer’s sentiments are corroborated by the incidents of the past weeks where Kenyans have become victims of an increased aggression by the Al-Shabaab and the militia groups from Ethiopia and South Sudan.
A fortnight ago, Iteere flew to the troubled Kenya-Somali border, a day after the insurgents tried to kidnap four police officers. On the same day, Al-Shabaab fighters killed four of their colleagues right inside Kenya after they differed over smuggled goods.
In another incident outside El-Wak town, Somali’s Transitional Federal Government soldiers killed one of their colleagues over alleged blackmail.
"All these incidents show that these gangs are operating from Kenya," said a police officer.
Another police officer based in Moyale recounted how they escaped death by a whisker after Al-Shabaab militants lobbed a grenade at their vehicle last month.
Moyale District Commissioner David Rotich was recently quoted as saying that the OLF rebels posed the biggest security threat in the district.
The Government has declared war against the militia groups but the sounds of gunfire continue to echo across the vast semi-arid region.
11 killed in Somalia border clashes
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