Gunmen brutally murdered four construction workers at a hospital site near a refugee camp and the border with Somalia in northern Kenya, police said Saturday.
According to a police official who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, the workers were resting when they were attacked, resulting in four deaths at close range. The remaining four workers managed to escape unharmed.
The hospital construction site is located near Dadaab, Kenya’s largest refugee camp, and the border with Somalia, where the al-Shabab militant group operates.
Garissa County, where the attack took place, has previously been targeted by al-Shabab militants crossing through the porous border.
Local police suspect that the armed group responsible for the attack had warned the contractor to avoid the area, which they consider their territory.
Recent violence in northern Kenya has seen several fatalities in different incidents.
Security operations in the region have been intensified by the government in response to these attacks.
The recent surge in violence has led the government to halt plans to reopen the Kenya-Somalia border 698-kilometer(434 miles), which was closed in 2011, due to ongoing security concerns, despite rampant illegal crossings.
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