Kenyan police are searching for six Al Shabaab jihadists armed with AK-47 assault rifles who held up a commuter bus on 13 January looking for Christian passengers.
The attack happened near the Somali border in Wajir county, which is 99% Muslim, whereas Kenya as a whole is more than 80% Christian.
The terrorists fired a shot in the air and ordered all passengers off the bus, which was heading to Nairobi from Mandera in northeastern Kenya. “They separated men and women and interrogated men by asking whether they carry non-locals [Christians] in their buses and also among them whether there was any civil servant,” the police said in an incident report.
The militants robbed passengers of valuables and the driver of 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($360) before warning him not to carry any non-locals (likely to be Christians) on his bus, which was allowed to continue on its journey.
More security officers were sent to the area in the hunt for the attackers, who are thought to have crossed the border into Somalia. Al Shabaab militants have staged several attacks recently, abducting civilians and targeting security service vehicles in the region, particularly in Mandera and Garissa counties.
In December 2019, Al-Shabaab militants singled out and killed eight Christians and three other non-Muslims in an attack on a bus in Wajir county.
