Mandera slowly reviving after years of terror attacks

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Mandera town is slowly getting back to life after years of endless deadly attacks by the dreaded Al-Shabaab militants from neighbouring Somalia.

Businesses are now thriving in the border town following the prevailing security courtesy of concerted efforts by security agencies, local leaders and members of the public.

The Somalia based terror group Al-Shabaab had found an easy target on its onslaught against Kenya since the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) kicked off an offensive against the terror group in its save haven in Somalia.

It is a situation that saw mass exodus of mainly non-locals following sustained attacks targeting them.

Businesses were closing down as no one dared run his business for fear of being attacked.

The self imposed ‘curfew’ became the order of the day dealing a major blow to an almost a 24 hour economy.

However today a visitor in this town would be mistaken to think that Mandera town had witnessed turbulent times.

The prevailing security was realized following a raft of measures involving security agencies, the elders, religious leaders and commitment by members of the public to cooperate with security agencies to arrest the situation that would have otherwise left the town under the mercy of Al-Shabaab.

North Eastern regional commissioner Mohamud Saleh applauded members of the public for choosing to cooperate with security agencies to weed out terror elements from their midst.

During the wave of attacks, Al-Shabaab militants mainly targeted hotels, communication masts, small scale traders, travelers and quarry workers majority of whom were non locals.