The Kenyan police have said that at least, six people, including two schoolchildren, have been killed in what is believed to be an ambush attack near the Somalia border.

The incident happened in the north-eastern Mandera district where the attackers were said to have opened fire on the truck in which the victims were travelling in with.

Local reporters in the area said the region is noted for inter-clan fighting as well as routine attacks by Somalia’s militants al-Shabab group which many believe have link with al-Qaeda.

Local police Chief Joseph Tenai told reporters that a schoolboy and schoolgirl were among the people killed in the attack in the Qooqae area in Mandera County.

“The survivors have told us they were attacked when the gunmen emerged from a bush and sprayed the vehicle with bullets, killing four people on the spot’’,  Mr. Tenai told reporters.

The North-eastern part of Kenya is a remote region which borders Somalia to the east and Ethiopia to the north thereby making it a hub for Somalia’s militants Al Shabab to frequently attack local residents in response to what the militants called an evasion of Somalia by the Kenyan government.

The Kenyan government has deployed several thousand of military troops with heavy weapons to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab militants.

The troops have since been integrated into an 18,000-strong African Union (AU) force battling the Al Shabab militants in Somalia.

In May, Kenyan police said al-Shabab had killed at least six people, including two policemen, in attacks on the Abdisugow and Damajale border posts in an unknown circumstance.

Al-Shabab militants have staged numerous cross-border raids since Kenya decided in October 2011 to send troops into Somalia to fight their insurgencies they sometimes extend to Kenya.

The Kenyan Standard newspaper also reported that Inter-clan fighting in Mandera district has led to the deaths of about 30 people in the area in recent weeks.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

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