The bodies of five people killed in Mandera have been flown to Nairobi as another attack was foiled in neighbouring Garissa County. The deaths are the latest in a series of terror attacks that have struck Kenya's northeastern region along the border with Somalia.
Mandera County occupies the far northeastern corner of Kenya, at the point where the country's frontiers with Somalia and Ethiopia meet. Mandera town, the county's administrative headquarters, lies hundreds of kilometres from Nairobi, and the road route between the two runs south through Wajir and Garissa counties. The bodies of the five victims were transported to the capital by air.
Garissa County, where the second attack was foiled, lies to the south of Mandera and also borders Somalia. Garissa town sits on the Tana River along the main highway linking Nairobi to the border crossing at Liboi, the principal gateway between Kenya and Somalia. The county is home to a large ethnic Somali population, and cross-border trade in livestock and goods has long sustained its economy.
Both counties fall within a belt of Kenyan territory that has suffered repeated attacks since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October 2011. The military intervention followed a spate of kidnappings of foreign tourists and aid workers on Kenyan soil, including from the Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa County.
