Three people were beheaded and their houses torched in a dawn attack on Maleli Village of Witu in Lamu by suspected Al Shabaab terrorists.
Lamu County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo confirmed the incident saying that three people were hacked. Kitiyo said a team of police officers had since dispatched to pursue the attackers, who are believed to be within the scene.
The gunmen are said to have invaded the village at around 12.30am Friday and butchered men, while sparing women and children. They later vanished into the bushes after the attack, as has been their tactic in past attacks.
Authorities believe that the militants have set up a hideout camp in the expansive and dense Boni Forest, even as a multi-agency operation to flush them out continues.
The Somalia-based rag-tag militia connected to Al-Qaeda terror network, has been carrying a series of attacks on villages and ambushing travellers in the coastal county for months now, which prompted acting interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to impose a three month dusk to dawn curfew in Lamu, Garissa and Tana River counties.
A roadside bomb planted by the militants killed five police officers in Ijara , Garissa County last week, being the latest of similar attacks in the last few months.
