Jihadists from the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab have reportedly executed six Christians in a Kenyan town that borders Somalia, marking the latest in a wave of attacks targeting Christians in the predominantly Muslim region.
The attack was aimed at “forcing” Christians out of northeastern Kenya’s Mandera town region, reports BBC, citing a radio station run by the Somalia-based al-Shabab group.
A spokesman for the jihadist group told the British outlet that al-Shabab “wanted non-Muslims to leave what it regarded as Muslim areas.”
The terrorists also attacked a telecommunication site to divert the attention of the Kenyan security forces from the “actual attack,” said Mandera County commissioner Fredrick Shiswa.
“This must have been planned over a long period… It was executed with a lot efficiency,” Shiswa told BBC.
The British news agency learned from local police that the “the grenade and gun attack was launched on a residential block in Mandera town when people were sleeping.”
Mandera lies along Kenya’s border with Somalia, making the region vulnerable to attacks from al-Shabab.