By Abdinoor Ali

MANDERA – Suspected Al-Shabaab militants have abducted three people at Fino area in Mandera town near the porous Kenya Somalia border.

The three included two locals who were released by the insurgents later and took away one non- local into Somalia border.

According to reports from the town, the abductees include a medical officer who is incharge of Fino Health centre.

The Al- Qaeda affiliate group is yet to claim responsibility for the kidnapping even as the government of Kenya deployed heavy contingent of security personnel to pursue and track down the militant in a bid to rescue the medic.

This is not the first time the terror outfit has conducted abduction in the area as a similar abduction was reported in the town in April 2019 where two Cuban doctors
were kidnapped and were taken over to the border to Somalia by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez -a general practitioner and a surgeon were abducted in Mandera, near the border of Somalia while one of the two police officers who were escorting them to work was shot dead by the attackers, who later fled from the scene towards Somalia with their captives.

A statement from the police said that four armed men on Friday stormed a Fino Health centre where they kidnapped three people and later released two were locals.

Lafey sub-county health officer Ali Hassan Abdi told the star that at least 10 armed militants struck the health facility and abducted the non-local identified as Jackson Kabuu.

It is not yet clear the reason behind the abduction but Al- Shabaab militant group has been occasionally carrying out attacks in Northern Kenya since Kenya government deployed peacekeeping troops to Somalia.