Suspected al-Shabaab militants killed two Christian teachers in northern Kenya last week, sources have told Morning Star News.
The US-based news organisation reports that the miltants were believed to be behind an attack in which an improvised explosive device was detonated at a housing block where non-local teachers live in Mandera East, on Kenya’s border with Somalia on 10th October.
The two teachers were reportedly killed instantly.
“The non-local teachers were members of the Catholic Church and the East Africa Pentecostal Church,” a source told Morning Star News, requesting their names be withheld as relatives have yet to be notified. “The attackers knew who to attack; they had a specific mission of targeting non-locals as they went straight to the house quarters of the four non-local teachers.”
One of the two non-local teachers who were able to flee the living quarters before the explosion notified a Morning Star News contact of the attack on the teachers’ quarters of the Arabia Boys Secondary School, located about two kilometres from the Somali border.
“But thank God two of us managed to escape,” the surviving teacher reportedly said, requesting anonymity. “They razed the house down with the hope that none of the non-local teachers survived.”
Area churches and schools have been shaken by previous attacks, and Morning Star News reports that an area church leader said he has decided to leave until security is tightened.
“I am concerned for my church members and the future of the church in Mandera,” he said. “I know our presence meant a lot for the kingdom of God, but our hearts have been gripped with great fear.”
The attack was not random or accidental, since no local teacher, workers or students were killed, he said.
“As a non-local pastor, I feel frightened of a possible attack on our church,” he said. “My members are in a great, fearful state. We really need prayers for God’s protection.”
The two teachers who survived are traumatised and need prayers and counseling, he added.
The bodies of the slain teachers have been flown to Nairobi, where notification of family members is pending.
Al-Shabaab, which is allied with al-Qaeda, or al-Shabaab sympathisers have killed several non-local people in northern Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast.
