Travellers on their way to Mandera town were held hostage by suspected Al-Shabaab militants on Wednesday and lectured for two hours, according to a report filed at the Kotulo Police Station.
According to Nation, police said an unknown number of heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants stopped an Al-Mukaram company passenger bus at Lag Mata Kuta, between Dabacity and Dimu Hill, and ordered passengers to disembark.
They “searched for non-locals for more than two hours. The bus was heading to Mandera from Nairobi,” the report said.
A taxi driver and a boda boda rider on the Kotulo-Elwak road were detained alongside their passengers.
“They also stopped a taxi from Kotulo heading to Elwak and a motorbike coming from Borehole 11 to Dimu village.After thoroughly searching for non-locals in vain, they gave a long speech in [the] Somali language which most of the passengers didn’t comprehend,” part of the report read.
The assailants had split into two groups. While one group searched the passengers, the other stood guard in the bushes.
All of the passengers were released and continued on their journey. They arrived safely in Mandera later that day.
Since then, security officers at roadblocks have been told not to let any non-locals travel on the B9 road between Kotulo and Elwak.
Hours after the incident, General Service Unit (GSU) personnel from the Duse Camp were called in. What happened to the daily armed police escorts of buses on that road remained unknown.
Due to insecurity, armed officers have been accompanying buses into and out of Mandera County since 2015.
When militants began targeting Mandera residents of non-Somali origin, the government prohibited them from using the Mandera-Rhamu-Elwak-Kotulo-Wajir road.
Non-locals traveling into or out of Mandera must fly or take the longer Mandera-Rhamu-Banisa-Moyale road.
