El Wak, Kenya - Bandits are holding two Italian Catholic nuns they captured in a Sunday night ambush in the small town of El Wak on the Somali border in North-Eastern Kenya.
The sisters, members of the Contemplative Missionary Movement of Fr De Foucald, are Maria Teresa Olevero and Catarina Giraudo. Their condition and whereabouts were still unknown at the time of filing this report.
The bandits opened fire at the sisters' house before breaking in. A watchman at the house said he heard one of the sisters screaming as they were taken away.
El Wak is an outstation (sub-parish) of Mandera Parish, located some 230 kilometers away. The two sisters and a few other Catholics, mostly civil servants, were the only Christians in the majority Muslim town.
The Diocese of Garissa where El wak is located is also largely Muslim. The sisters' service to the local people included offering medical and nutritional care to malnourished children, expectant mothers and the elderly. They also ran a small dispensary.
The bandits are suspected to be from one of two clans that have been fighting in the area. The attackers also overran government quarters in the town and took away vehicles and other valuables.
According the public broadcaster KBC, there are fears that the bandits may have crossed the border into Somalia with the nuns and stolen vehicles.
Sr Maria Teresa has been in Kenya since 1972, while Sr. Catarina, a nurse, has served the East African nation since 1974. The latter has been in El Wak since 1984.
Mandera Central District Commissioner Ole Tutui confirmed the Sunday attack to KBC, saying the bandits lobbed a bomb at government quarters but no injuries or deaths were reported.
The attackers used heavy weapons mounted on a vehicle from where they sprayed the town with bullets. The district police chief Akello Odhiambo said that security personnel was pursuing the attackers.
Recently, the government launched a massive security operation in Mandera to quell inter-clan fighting over grazing land and water and to wipe out bandits. The operation came under severe criticism from politicians, local people and the civil society over allegations of serious human rights violations perpetrated by the security personnel.
On Saturday, the government said it would deploy more security officers, including the army, on the porous borders of Somalia to prevent foreign militia from crossing into the country and inciting clashes among clans in North Eastern Province.
Banditry is rife in Somalia, which has had no government since 1991. The country is also believed to have bases for the Al Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.
MANDERA, November 10, 2008 (CISA) -The Sunday night bandit attack on El Wak comes in the context of renewed fighting between the Murulle and Garre clans of the Somali community in Mandera, where more than 20 people have been killed and hundreds of others forced to flee.
The conflict paralyzed transport, led to the imposition of a curfew and worsened life for residents already hard-hit by floods and famine.
The Murulle-Garre clans conflict is traced to 1984. Political differences and the scramble for dwindling resources in the arid area have fuelled intense rivalry between the two clans since then.
The latest conflict erupted after two people were killed in July and three injured following a dispute over a district boundary in Lafey, Wargadud, and El Wak triangle.
On September 7, two more members of the Garre clan were killed. The next day, armed men raided Gari location, inhabited by the Murulle. The attack left four dead, among them two senior administration police officers.
Barely a week later, a dawn raid on the same Gari village left 12 people dead. The same evening two students from Arabia Secondary School hailing from one of the clans were kidnapped in broad daylight and their fate is yet to be established.
Although a cease-fire was called to give the residents peace during the month of Ramadhan in September, the killing spree still went on.
Mandera remains volatile as bandits intercept vehicles, pulling out rival clan members and killing them. Scores of vehicles belonging to rival clans have also been hijacked.
The fighting has become more sophisticated. In the ongoing security operation, police recovered firearms, bullets, grenades, communications sets, a rocket propeller and drugs. Police say they have evidence the clans are seeking support from militants in neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia.