Gunmen killed 29 in Raids On Kenya Coast

Posted by African Examiner African News, Crime Watch, Latest Headlines, News Sunday, July 6th, 2014

At least 29 people have been killed by gunmen during raids on two different areas on the Kenyan coast, the country’s Interior Ministry revealed Sunday.

The Somali militant group al-Shabaab, which attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September, said it had staged an attack on Saturday evening in the coastal area.

The Ministry’s spokesperson Mwenda Njoka, told Reuters that nine people lost their lives at the Hindi trading centre in Lamu County, near the scene of attacks in which 65 people were killed last month.

Similarly, 20 people were killed in another attack in the Gamba area of neighbouring Tana River County. The counties are situated north of the port of Mombasa.

“There were two attacks in Lamu and Tana River last night. In Lamu we have nine people dead and in Tana River we have 20. The number could rise,” Njoka revealed.

Officials said a group of between 10 and 15 men stormed Hindi, situated 15km from the town of Lamu and close to the town of Mpeketoni, which was nearly destroyed in one of the attacks in June, in the night on Saturday and “went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately, ” the area chief, Abdallah Shahasi confirmed.