Kenya-Ethiopia cross border attacks kill five, injure 17 Kenyans

At least five Kenyans have been killed and 17 others wounded when heavily-armed Ethiopian tribesmen attacked a town in northern Kenya along the border with Ethiopia, Press TV reports.

On Monday, in a cattle rustling attempt, the armed assailants, who belonged to the Ethiopian Gare tribe, attacked the town of Banisa and opened fire on people, causing the fatalities.

Speaking to Press TV, Dahir Mohamed, a local resident, said the victims were “three men, a woman, and a child,” who “were mostly cattle herders.”
According to Kenyan police officers, at least 500 cattle were stolen by the assailants.
The attack also rendered several Kenyan families homeless.

“The repots, we have received, indicate that those killed were shot and others were severely slashed. We are still monitoring the situation,” North Eastern Provincial Commissioner, Ernst Munyi told a Press TV correspondent.
Kenyan MP Abdikadir Mahammed told reporters that the incident was intended to create clannish conflicts ahead of the country’s 2013 general elections.
Kenyan security forces have been deployed to the site of the attack to defuse the tension in the volatile northern region.
The northern region has invariably been scene of disputes and subsequent clashes, which have so far claimed many lives.
In 2011, over 40 people, mainly from the Turkanas tribe in Kenya, were killed in cross border cattle rustling attacks.