Church members in a northeastern town in Kenya fear for their lives after Islamic extremists targeted Christians in a grenade and gun attack early last Thursday morning, 6th October, that killed six people, sources said.
Targeting predominantly Christian migrant workers from Kenya’s interior, rebels from Somalia’s al-Shabaab group reportedly took responsibility for the attack at a residential compound in Mandera, with a spokesman for the militants saying it was designed to drive Christians from the area.
The attack in Mandera, tucked in Kenya’s northeast corner near the Somali border, reportedly wounded several others. Among 27 people rescued were Christians who arrived at their church traumatised and in shock.
“The loud grenade woke me up, and I heard one of the attackers saying the ‘infidels’ should leave the Muslim area of Mandera,” one survivor told Morning Star News. “There were loud cries for help as the attackers were shooting from all directions.”
The pastor of an area church told Morning Star News that two members of his congregation were among those killed in the attack.
“Two of my church members were brutally murdered, and then their heads were chopped off,” he said. “The government needs to beef up security, especially in areas where non-locals who are mostly Christians reside, otherwise we are opting to leave the area for the sake of our lives.”
Earlier this year, in a pre-dawn raid on a predominantly Christian area in coastal Kenya, al-Shabaab rebels killed at least four Christians, beheading one of them, and they have carried out previous attacks in the Mandera area.
