{"id":26339,"date":"2016-06-25T04:06:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T04:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-high-alert-as-shabaab-militants-destroy\/"},"modified":"2016-06-25T04:06:38","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T04:06:38","slug":"kenya-high-alert-as-shabaab-militants-destroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-high-alert-as-shabaab-militants-destroy\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:High alert as Shabaab militants destroy Safaricom mast in Mandera"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Al-Shabaab militants are reported to have struck Damasa Town and destroyed a Safaricom mast and a water pump.}<\/p>\n

Kenyan security officers are on high alert after Al-Shabaab militants on Friday destroyed a communication mast at Damasa in Mandera County.<\/p>\n

Lafey police boss Bossita Omukolongo confirmed to Nation.co.ke the destruction of Safaricom communication mast.<\/p>\n

Speaking on phone, he said the incident happened at 1am.<\/p>\n

“At about 1am explosions were heard from that area only to be told that a communication mast had been destroyed and the only water source also destroyed,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Omukolongo said the communication between his station and the Damasa military camp has been cut off.<\/p>\n

“We are using Hormud network that is expensive for communication with those at Damasa for now.<\/p>\n

Hormud is a Somalia communication network.<\/p>\n

He said the perimeter wall securing the mast was destroyed, as well as water engines and solar panels at the borehole.<\/p>\n

{{Hundred militants }} <\/p>\n

On the reported presence of Al-Shabaab in the area, the police boss said his officers on night duty reported nothing but sources in Damasa have reported seeing more a hundred armed militants.<\/p>\n

“We have seen nothing although those in the area are talking of more than a 100 armed men,” said Omukolongo.<\/p>\n

He said it has been reported that locals on Damasa side of Somali were moving out of the area.<\/p>\n

“We are hearing that those on Somali side are vacating the area since yesterday but we are yet to confirm that,” he said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, intelligence reports indicated that 13 lorries carrying the militants were seen at Damasa town but Mr Omukolongo could not confirm.<\/p>\n

“Lorries carrying people can be seen on Somali side but nothing has been reported here,” he said.<\/p>\n

The intelligence report said the militants were from El-Adde Town and were moving towards Borache (El-Wak, Somalia) and had motorcycles and four Toyota Land Cruisers with them .<\/p>\n

It further stated that the entourage was targeting Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) military camp in Damasa, El -Wak camp or the Somalia National Army (SNA) camp in Borache.<\/p>\n

“We are unable to communicate to the military camp but all security measures are in place,” he said.<\/p>\n

A security meeting scheduled to take place in area on Saturday, to be chaired by Mandera County Commissioner Frederick Shisia, has been postponed.<\/p>\n

The destroyed mast and the water source are said to be two kilometres from the Damasa KDF camp.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Al-Shabaab militants are reported to have struck Damasa Town and destroyed a Safaricom mast and a water pump.} Kenyan security officers are on high alert after Al-Shabaab militants on Friday destroyed a communication mast at Damasa in Mandera County. Lafey police boss Bossita Omukolongo confirmed to Nation.co.ke the destruction of Safaricom communication mast. Speaking on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26339"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26339"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}