No-one’s claimed responsibility but Al Shabaab has often attacked traffic on the Malindi Lamu road.

This is believed to be yet another retaliatory attack by Al Shabaab for Kenyan support of the UN peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Kenyan police escort traffic along the Malindi Lamu Road 450 kms from Nairobi because of terrorist attacks.

The bus that was first stoned and then fired upon had pulled ahead of the other two buses in the convoy.

The dead include the driver and a senior police officer.

The attackers ran into the Boni forest where they are being sought.

The post Manhunt after Kenyan bus attack appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The world’s most expensive peacekeeping mission will start taking personnel cuts next month.

It’s planned that the Somali forces will increasingly take responsibility for the country’s security.

The 22 000-strong AU force AMISOM is not sustainable as countries and outside contributors face budget cuts.

It’s doubtful that the Somali government, which hasn’t been able to exercise control over the Horn of Africa country since 1991, can take up the slack.

The ranks of the militant  group Al Shabaab are being swelled by fighters from so-called Islamic State driven out of Libya and Syria.

Last month, the deadliest terrorist attack in recent history killed more 500 people in Mogadishu.

The post Reducing peacekeepers in Somalia puts civilians at risk appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The claim has not been confirmed by the AMISOM force in the troubled Horn of Africa country.

ends

Usually contributing countries to AMISON give casualty figures after an attack.

These are invariably lower than those claimed by the terror group al Shabaab.

The Islamist militants say they attacked an AMISOM base manned by Ethiopian troops.

Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab says  several terrorist  fighters were killed but he did not give a figure.

Al Shabaab has been ejected from Somali towns. Nevertheless it manages to mount hit -and -run operations against both civilians and security forces.

The post Al Shabaab class to have killed 43 Ethiopian soldiers appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Ali Roba questions why Kenyan soldiers are part of an African Union force propping up the Somali government – leaving their own country unprotected to a wave of cross-border attacks by al-Shabab militants.

Last Friday, Ali Roba’s convoy was attacked in Mandera leaving three dead.

It was one of a string of recent attacks by the al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Roba says the public isn’t fooled by assurances that security is being beefed up and will do what they have to do unless the national government stops the attacks.

In November, al Shabab gunmen held up a bus outside Mandera town, separated passengers according to religion and executed 28 non-Muslims.

Ten days later 36 non-Muslim quarry workers were also massacred in the area.

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