NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – An explosion Monday at a small hotel near a police station in northeastern Kenya killed four people, including three police officers, and injured several others, authorities said.
The explosion in the town of Mandera, on the border with Somalia, was caused by an improvised explosive device planted in a hotel, which detonated as a crowd of people were sitting down to eat breakfast, police said.
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Mandera police chief Samwell Mutunga said two of the injured were in a serious condition and would be airlifted to the capital Nairobi.
Patients injured in a small hotel explosion are treated at a hospital in Mandera, Kenya, on Monday, March. 25th, 2024. Kenyan authorities say an explosion at a small hotel near a police station in the country’s northeast has killed four people. Three of the victims were police officers. Several other people were injured in Monday’s explosion in the town of Mandera. (AP Photo/Omar Noor)
Investigators blamed the attack on the East African-based extremist group al-Shabab. The group has not claimed responsibility for the explosion, but has carried out large-scale attacks in Kenya and neighboring Somalia.
The attack follows another attack in Lamu County on Kenya’s coast on Sunday in which two police reservists were killed.
The area has been the subject of frequent security operations as it has forests and is known as a hideout for al-Shabab militants.
During a police raid in Garissa County on Sunday, officers recovered materials for making an IED, an AK-47 rifle and two magazines. Three people escaped during the attack.
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The area is near the border between Kenya and Somalia, and in the past armed groups have invaded and launched attacks there.
Kenya’s government announced plans last year to reopen its border with Somalia, but postponed the reopening after militant attacks.
