Gunmen massacre 36 quarry workers while they sleep in north

Posted December 02, 2014 18:12:26

Dozens of labourers have been massacred while they slept at a quarry in troubled north-east Kenya.

At least 36 people died when attackers reportedly spray gunfire at tents where the workers were sleeping in Mandera County, near the border with Somalia

Local media reported that Muslims were by the attackers and then released.

The quarry killings follow a separate attack on Monday night in the town of Wajir - which like Mandera is close to the dangerous border with war-torn Somalia - which left one person dead and 12 wounded when gunmen hurled grenades and fired into a bar.

'Our team is on the ground undertaking assessments of the attack,' the Kenya Red Cross said.

Police spokesman Zipporah Mboroki confirmed the attacks but said the force would provide exact tolls of those killed later.

However, a senior police official said 36 people had been killed and there were fears others may have been abducted.

'We have lost 36 people, but there are others missing,' said the police official, who asked not to be named.

'We don't know whether they were taken by the attackers.'

The quarry attack, some 15 kilometres from the remote town of Mandera, is close to where Islamists last month executed 28 non-Muslims who were grabbed from a bus.

Islamist group Al Shabaab said the bus attack was carried out in revenge for police raids on mosques in Kenya's key port of Mombasa.

Kenya has suffered a series of attacks since invading Somalia in 2011 to attack the Shabaab.

Kenyan forces have since joined an African Union force battling the Islamists.

No-one has so far claimed responsibility for either of the attacks on Monday and Tuesday.

Several key unions have warned members to leave the restive north-east until the government can ensure their safety.

Professionals working in the largely Muslim and ethnic Somali north-eastern regions often come from further south in Kenya, where Christians make up about 80 per cent of the population.

Those working in the quarry attacked on Tuesday were also reported to have been from outside the region.

On Sunday, Kenyan media reported that the embattled interior minister and police chief may soon be sacked over 'repeated lapses' in security following a wave of attacks.

Both officials mentioned in the report have been under fire since last year's attack by the Shebab against the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, in which at least 67 people were killed in a siege involving just four gunmen and which lasted four days.

Worries over internal security mounted when Shebab rebels massacred 100 people in a string of raids against villages in the Lamu region on the Kenyan coast in June and July.

ABC/AFP

Topics:unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, kenya