Kenya delays plans to reopen border with Somalia

GOOBJOOG NEWS | DADAAB: Kenya has announced that it will delay its plans to reopen its border with Somalia over a recent spate of terror attacks by Al-shabaab militants in border counties.

Speaking at the Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said the decision was to allow security agencies to address the emerging challenge before the plan is implemented.

“Kenya and Somalia have been having a plan to reopen our border points in Mandera, Liboi, Kiunga and other areas along the border. The plan will go on but at the moment we are delaying it,” Kindiki said.

“In the past one month, we have noted and experienced disruption of peace and security and we have stopped that plan for a period to allow us to deal with the militants,” he added.

In June alone, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Lamu counties recorded more than fifteen terror attacks, leaving more than twenty people dead, most being security officers.

In May, Kenyan announced plans to reopen its border posts with Somalia in mandera, Lamu and Garissa within 90 days after a high-level consultative meeting between Kenya’s Interior minister his Somali counterpart Mohamed Ahmed Sheikh.

Reopening of the border was to effectively end a 12-year barricade that began in 2011 when Kenya launched Operation Linda Nchi to fight the incursion of Al Shabaab fighters into the country.

By Fauxile Kibet