At least 36 people have been killed in an attack
on a stone quarry in Mandera, northern Kenya,
local sources told Al Jazeera.
Gunmen opened fire at the quarry in the early
hours of Tuesday morning after separating
Muslims and non-Muslims, sources said.
The dead are reportedly miners who were
working in the quarry, located just outside the
town.
Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from
Nairobi, said that the Red Cross was on the
scene and that the military and army were
heading to the site, which is just 5km from the
border with Somalia.
“We are being told that many of the people who
work in the quarry are not from Somalia, but at
this time we cannot verify who has been killed,”
she said.
“This comes at a time when security in Mandera
has been beefed up because of recent attacks.
We just returned from Mandera and the security
forces there assured us they are in control of the
situation, but they said that the border there is
also very porous.”
The scene of the latest attack is about 30km
from the November 22 raid on a bus in which 28
non-Muslims were separated from the Muslim
travellers before being executed.
Armed group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for
the bus attack, but as yet no claim has been
made for the killings in Mandera.
The shooting in the quarry comes after an attack
on a night club in the Kenyan town of Wajir on
Monday night.
One person was killed and at least 12 injured as
gunmen hurled grenades and sprayed bullets at
the building, the government said.
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