At least 18 people have been killed in new attacks in Kenya’s Lamu coastal region, the same area where some 60 people were massacred last month, the Kenyan Red Cross said Sunday.
A spokesman for Somalia’s Shebab rebels claimed that the Al-Qaeda-linked group’s fighters had carried out another attack in the area.
The Red Cross said nine people died and one person was missing in the locality of Gamba in Tana River county, while nine people were killed in Hindi, a trading post in Lamu county. The areas were attacked late Saturday, authorities said.
“We had attacks at night where people were killed and houses destroyed. We have mobilised our officers and we are on the ground. We are calling on the public to work closely with us,” said Robert Kitur, a senior Lamu police official.
Police said unidentified gunmen also torched several houses and attacked Gamba’s police station, freeing a suspect held over last month’s attacks. One policeman was among the dead, officials said.
An AFP reporter in Hindi said all the dead in the town were men, apart from a teenage boy, who was reportedly shot as he tried to run away.
