MANDERA, Kenya Oct 11 (Garowe Online) - The Kenyan government has closed its border with Somalia following threats by Somali insurgents, Radio Garowe reports.

Local sources the Kenyan border towns of Mandera and Wajer have reported the arrival of Kenyan troops and ongoing military movements in the region.

“This [Sunday] morning, we were refused to cross the Kenyan border and we saw many students denied to attend schools in Mandera,” said a Somali businessman in Beled Hawo, a town in Gedo region in southwestern Somalia adjacent to Mandera.

The spokesman for Al Shabaab insurgents, Sheikh Ali “Dheere” Mohamud, told Mogadishu media that Kenya is a target for insurgent attacks.

“Kenya’s plan to defeat the Mujahideen is a failure and the troops it [Kenya] is recruiting will support the group that was forced out of Kismayo recently,” Sheikh Ali Dheere said, while referring to Hizbul Islam rebels loyal to Sheikh Ahmed “Madobe” Mohamed.

There are widespread reports that the Kenyan government is actively recruiting Somali youth in parts of Kenya inhabited by ethnic Somalis, with the intention of sending the new soldiers to fight insurgents in Somalia.

It is not the first time Kenya has closed off its porous border with Somalia for security reasons. Al Shabaab insurgents have used roadside explosions and suicide bombings against African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

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Source: Garowe Online