At least 29 people have been killed in two deadly shooting attacks in Kenya’s coastal districts, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The Somali Islamist militant group Al Shabaab, attacked on Saturday evening, the coastal area, killing 9 people at the Hindi trading center in Lamu County.
Another 20 people were killed in separate attack in the Gamba area of neighboring Tana River County. Both counties are situated north of the port of Mombasa.
“There were two attacks in Lamu and Tana River last night. In Lamu we have nine people dead and in Tana River we have 20. The number could rise,” Mwenda Njoka, the ministry’s spokesman told Reuters.
Officials said a group of 10-15 men struck at Hindi, which is situated 15 km (9 miles) from the town of Lamu, and close to the town of Mpeketoni, that was nearly destroyed in one of the attacks in June, at about 10 pm on Saturday.
“They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately,” Abdallah Shahasi, the area chief, told Reuters.
Al Shabaab said it had broken into the police station at Gamba and freed suspects from the detention cells.
A Kenyan police source corroborated the account saying “they killed some of our colleagues and freed Muslim detainees. Some of those freed were linked to the Mpeketoni attacks two weeks ago. We still don’t know how many detainees were freed until we verify with registers at the station,” the police source who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Miiri Njenga, the Lamu county commissioner, said the attackers targeted government offices and some properties were burnt down.
The Kenyan Red Cross said three people were taken to hospital with injuries, from both areas, adding another one was reported missing in Gamba.