Mandera Leaders Root For New Strategy To Degrade Al-Shabaab Threat

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 6-Leaders from the border County of Mandera are rooting for a fresh strategy to defeat the Al-Shabaab terrorists, in the wake of increased attacks targeting civilians and security agencies.

During a meeting held in Nairobi, the leaders who were led by Governor Ali Roba pointed out that the menace if not contained would continue to hamper service delivery by both levels of government.

The County has also been rendered inaccessible while only emergency vehicles are moving in the rural areas, following a series of attacks.

In a change of tact, the leaders are now calling for a Community led solution to the menace that has claimed tens of lives in the area and left property worth millions of shillings destroyed and worse, left locals without crucial services.

“The leaders are gravely concerned that Mandera is largely inaccessible by road after recent attacks on public buses and, national and county government vehicles as well as trucks ferrying cargo,” a highly placed source in the meeting also attended by representative from the Executive said.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Hassan Noor Hassan, Senator Mummad, legislators Omar Mohamed, Maj. Bashir Abdullahi, Adan Haji, Kullow Maalim, Abdi Mude and Speaker of Assembly Mohammed Khalif.

“The meeting was held in Nairobi aims at finding community led solutions to the Al Shabaab mence by working in partnership with security agencies,” the source told Shahidi News.

The meeting comes amidst a recent peace trip led by Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed and the Governor two weeks ago.

Due to a largely porous border and proximity to the war torn Somalia, Mandera has always been on the receiving end of terror attacks.

Locals have recently reported seeing the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists walk freely in the villages while extorting and offering extremist talks to the youth.