Al-Shabaab targets experts in latest rampant abductions in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants are now targeting various experts and professionals in a bid to increase the reach, intelligence reports reveal, with Kenya being one of their major focus.

As a result, professionals based in Mandera County are a worried lot. The most targeted include medics, teachers and security officers, reports indicate, a move that has forced a number of them to flee the area.

In the last one year, at least 11 people have been abducted by the militants in the northeastern county, security records indicate, and to date, efforts by Special Forces to trace them have proved futile.

“We have information that Al-Shabaab is interested in abducting medical officers and teachers to be used in areas under their control in Somalia,” a senior security officer in Mandera told Daily Nation in confidence since he's not allowed to speak authoritatively on the matter.

Professionals from the non-local communities are the most targeted because Al-Shabaab believes that they are cooperative once under the militants' control. Many non-local teachers and doctors in Kenya have since deserted the region.

Last month, Julius Mwania, a mechanic in Mandera, was abducted from a Moyale Raha bus by the militants. During the incident, two non-locals were killed after which, the militants vanished with their victim.

In a recent security briefing, Mandera Police Commander Jeremiah Kosiom said: “We believe he is alive; the search is on. We will find him and reunite him with his family."

Mr. Mohamed Bardad, the bus owner, said herdsmen and the local community had been engaged to trace Mr. Mwania. On January 5, suspected militants raided a village at Fino in Laffey Sub-County and abducted five locals.

The victims were forced onto a pickup truck and driven towards Somalia. The group abandoned four of the victims at Kuse but went away with one, Mohamed Salat said.

“This was a case of abducting an informed person who could divulge information on security operations in the area, that is what al-Shabaab keeps doing when they want to know about the security situation,” said Ali Adan, a local.

He said that most prominent locals along the porous border have been forced to flee their homes for fear of abduction. Throughout the abduction process, the militants target security forces who they kill before executing their mission.

Besides helping the group to offer critical services in their area of specialization, the experts are sometimes forced to share intelligence details with the group, which at times helps them to wage attacks in the region, officials said.

On June 23, 2019, three elders were abducted at Fino and taken to Somalia. They were accused of being government informers. Also, a nurse at Mandera County Referral Hospital was forced to run for his life after suspected militants went looking for him, the Nation reported.

He used to work with the two kidnapped Cuban doctors. A police report indicated that militants wanted him to act as a translator. The incident happened on April 17, 2019.

In a daring road ambush on April 12, 2019, Dr. Landy Rodriguez, a surgeon, and Dr. Herera Correa, a general practitioner, were kidnapped by the militants, who killed one of the police officers escorting them.

The government of Kenya dispatched elders from Mandera to engage the militants in Gedo. Within the Somali community, elders are among the highly respected people in society.

“We managed to see the two doctors, but the abductors sort a ransom that we could not agree on and we needed to report back to our government,” said one of the elders.

During negotiations, multiple sources indicate, the Al-Shabaab militants asked for $1.5 million ransom, which the government of Kenya flatly rejected. In the meantime, officers from KDF Special Forces have been tracking the doctors, who are said to be offering services within El-Adde.

Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai said last year that the Kenyan government was pursuing the militants. He, however, said police were not involved in the process.

"Our work as police end at the border … I am not in a position to account for the fate of the Cuban doctors, but we have a team working on it,” Mr. Mutyambai said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta early this year asked northeastern leaders to engage their constituents, who he sensationally claimed that "are aware of the militants' activities within the Kenyan border but don't want to share information".

Besides suffering casualties deep in Somalia following unending US airstrikes, Al-Shabaab militants have also suffered a similar fate in Kenya. In March, KDF troops killed a total of 20 militants in Garissa and Lamu.

GAROWE ONLINE