The Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab militant group based in Somalia issued a new threat against the neighboring Kenya. The Islamist militant group threatened Kenya with more attacks in retaliation if the country does not withdraw its troops from Somalia. Kenyan troops are part of about 22,000 strong forces’ deployed by African Union to fight Al-Shabaab under the mandate of African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
Through the group’s propaganda media, Al-Shabaab issued the threat in a statement written in English. The militant group said in the statement promoted via allied online channels that its fighters will continue to target Kenyan villages, towns and cities with attacks as long as her troops remain in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab in its statement noted that the Kenyan government continues to maintain its “invasion” of Muslim lands and if the incoming new government does not vacate from these lands, the group will continue to strike inside Kenya.
“Know that we will continue to defend our lands and our people from the aggressive Kenyan invasion. We will continue to concentrate our attacks on Kenyan towns and cities as long as Kenyan forces continue to occupy our Muslim lands,” the group’s statement read in part.
Analysts at Strategic Intelligence (S.I) have warned of possible attacks inside Kenya in the coming days by Al-Shabaab just to prove the seriousness of its call to withdraw troops from Somalia. S.I. analysts notes that Al-Shabaab threat to Kenya generally remains high, the militant group has infiltrated the country from across the border and maintaining active cells/pockets along the border counties with Somalia. This means, the militant group will continue trying to target Kenya as long as they don’t get what they want, which at its core is the end of a Kenyan military operation in Somalia.
Such Al-Shabaab threats cannot be downplayed citing in the past similar threats have come to be perpetrated. Thus, Al-Shabaab threats to Kenya are real and Kenyan counterterrorism operators need to keep vigil, beef security along the porous border with Somalia as well as intensify patrols, comb scouting around security defense posts especially in upper and lower NEP Kenya (Mandera, Wajir and Garissa and also do the same in the coastal counties especially in Lamu.
