KENYA: Twenty-one die in inter-clan violence

NAIROBI, 10 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Twenty-one people were killed in inter-clan violence in the Mandera district of Kenya's Northeastern Province during the past week, police said on Monday.

Violence flared up on 2 January between the Garre and Murule clans, which are both Kenyan Somali, police spokesman Jaspher Ombati told IRIN.

"Nine people were killed yesterday and it is believed that it was a retaliation following the first attack on the 2nd of January when 12 people died," he said. The violence has taken place around the town of El Wak.

Eight people were wounded during Sunday's attack and several of them were airlifted to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for medical treatment after receiving life-threatening gunshot wounds, Ombati said.

He declined to mention what the exact cause of the violence was, saying a team of investigators had been sent to the violence-hit area.

"I don't want to pre-empt their findings," Ombati added.

Press reports said the dead included women and children, adding that Sunday's victims were killed when a gang of armed raiders sprayed residents of a village with bullets as they slept in their homesteads.

Much of Kenya's Northeastern Province is arid and notoriously lawless, with bandits often carrying out attacks. However, the latest clashes seem to have been triggered by disputes of pasture and water points among the region's livestock herders, according to some sources.

[ENDS]