Mandera killings: How gunmen ambushed and shot down 8 people working on road project

A deadly morning ambush along a major road project in Mandera County has claimed the lives of at least eight people, including five engineers and two police reservists, authorities confirmed.

The attack occurred on Tuesday morning at Koromey, near Hagarsu along Arabia Road. Heavily armed assailants opened fire on a security vehicle assigned to protect personnel working on the critical Mandera-Arabia-Lafey road project.

Seven victims died instantly at the scene. The driver of the security vehicle suffered severe gunshot wounds and succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to the Mandera County Teaching and Referral Hospital (MCTRH).

According to preliminary police reports, the victims include five engineers attached to the construction project and two officers from the Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) who formed part of the protective detail. Reinforcements were immediately dispatched to the area to pursue the assailants.

The targeted attack underscores the severe security risks confronting infrastructure initiatives in the volatile border region, where al-Shabaab militants regularly exploit the porous boundary between Kenya and Somalia.

The tragedy follows a series of recent skirmishes across northeastern Kenya, where security forces have been on heightened alert.

Over the weekend, militants launched a synchronized overnight assault in Garissa County targeting both the Hulugho Police Station and the nearby Gesreb Special Operations Group (SOG) multi-agency camp.

Assailants fired AK-pattern rifles and a PKM machine gun at the installations around 1:20 a.m, but stationed forces swiftly repelled the attack. No casualties or property damage were reported in that incident.

In a separate encounter in Mandera County, troops at the Damasa Forward Operating Base (FOB) thwarted an attempted raid after drone surveillance spotted six armed fighters advancing on defensive positions around 10:30 p.m.

Base personnel engaged the approaching militants with indirect fire, triggering an exchange of automatic gunfire before the suspects withdrew across the border. Security personnel suffered no casualties.

Security agencies have since ramped up patrols and ground surveillance throughout the frontier corridor, maintaining heightened vigilance as counter-terror operations continue.