36 Christians have been killed in Kenya this week in an attack by Somalian Muslim extremist group al-Shabaab.
More than 20 gunmen targeted a group of quarry workers near the town of Mandera in the early hours of Tuesday morning, separating Christians from Muslims before executing them. At least 36 bodies were recovered in the quarry later that day.
The massacre is part of a spate of attacks that have occurred recently in parts of Kenya bordering Somalia. Last month a group of Islamist militants boarded a bus in Kenya, killing at least 28 passengers who failed to recite passages of the Quran.
Somalian extremists al-Shabaab have claimed responsibility for the attacks, calling the most recent one retaliation for recent police raids in mosques in Mombasa following the discovery of explosives in one of them.
“Our Mujhahideen forces are always ready to launch frequent deadly cross-border attacks against Kenya as a revenge,” a spokesman for the extremist group said in statement.
Kenya’s largest mosque, the Jamia Mosque located in Nairobi, was swift to condemn Tuesday’s attack as a ‘beastly tactic’.
“This unfortunate and ugly incident should not be used to divide peace loving Kenyans who have lived harmoniously for centuries — along religious or ethnic lines,” the mosque said in a statement, “but rather it should be taken to reflect on improving the security situation of the country”.
