| AL SHABAB |
It
is said no true love can anyone show than to offer their life in order to save
another’s. Well, this was shown practically in Mandera, Kenya when a group of
militants from the Al-Shabab group attacked a bus carrying passengers of both
the Muslim and Christian faith from Nairobi to Mandera. According to reports, the
Muslims on board defied an order from the Islamists that they separate from the
Christians for easy identification. The Muslims rather told the terrorists “to kill
them together or leave them alone.”
This
move was to avoid a repeat of what had happened in similar incidents in the
past like the attack at the Garissa University College in April this year when the
al-Shabab separated people by faith and killed 148 Christians while sparing the
life of Muslims.
The
Somali based al-Shabab group which has severally struck in the north-east part
of Kenya, which is populated by a large number of ethnic Somalis, leaving
mayhem in their wake, has claimed responsibility for the attack which left 2
persons dead in the El Wak village on the border with Somali.
The
governor of Mandera, Ali Roba speaking to the press praised the local’s sense
of patriotism and love for each other and said this led to the militants
decision to leave the passengers forestalling what happened last year, when a
bus attack near Mandera by the same al-Shabab militants resulted in the killing
of 28 non-Muslims who were travelling to Nairobi for the Christmas holidays.
The
BBC correspondent in Nairobi analyzing the incident said the passengers on board
the bus displayed great bravery defying the militants orders and he noted that this
may have also been due to frustration as majority of the locals in the
north-east of Kenyan are Muslims of Somali descent and they have in the past
borne the consequences of al-Shabab attacks, even when non-Muslims are supposed
to be the those targeted by the Al Shabab militant group, a case in question
being the attack last year in Mandera, where Christians were separated from
Muslims and killed, leading to the departure of more than 2,000 teachers and
also a number of health workers who were indigenes of other parts of the
country.
He
expressed the feeling that the passengers may have felt that the region could not
afford another a repeat of such attack noted that it was left to be seen if
their actions would embolden the local population to rise up in resistance to
al-Shabab, which has repeatedly attacked the area.
The
BBC states that an employee of the Makkah Bus Company, owners of the bus
attacked who spoke to the bus driver confirmed that the Muslims did not accept
to be separated from the Christian passengers on board. He, however, said one
of the victims was shot dead while making an attempt to run away from the scene
after the militants had forced the passengers off the bus.
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