The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) confirmed that it has deployed additional troops to the military base in Manda Bay, Lamu to bolster security after an al Shabaab attack. The troops deployed belong to the East Africa Response Force (EARF).
According to U.S. Africa Command spokeswoman Samantha Reho, between 50-100 US troops and will join their comrades in Lamu. The deployment is quite sizeable seeing as prior to the attack, they were less than 150 troops at the military base.
The response force, which serves under the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, based in Djibouti, is equipped for military operations including protecting Americans and U.S. diplomatic facilities, supporting noncombatant evacuations, providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and other missions as directed.
The deployment is a much welcome increased military presence in Lamu which has been used as a launchpad for attacks by the al Shabaab both in Kenya and Somalia dues to its strategic geographical placement as well as terrain adversity that the militants take advantage of.
