Wednesday August 6, 2014
Mandera, Kenya: A form one student at a secondary school in Mandera town is admitted at local hospital, after she was hit by a stray bullet from across the Somali border on Wednesday afternoon following a fierce fighting.
Mandera county commissioner Alex Olenkoyo said Hamdia Abdullahi, 17, a student at Moi Girls Secondary School was shot at the thigh by the stray bullet following a brief gun exchange, in Bulla-Xawa, a war-ravaged Somali border that is less than 500 meters from Mandera town.
“There was a brief fighting in Bulla-Xawa at around 11.20 am and the girl was at the time heading home (which is close to the border) from the school and she was hit at the left thigh by a stray bullet,” he added.
According to a source within Somali border town, the gun exchange was prompted by confrontation between defectors who refused to surrender firearms and soldiers loyal to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
According to the county commissioner, the girl ignored the bleeding thinking it was the normal monthly cycle, only to collapse on arrival at home. The mother and neighbours who responded to her distress call later realised that it was a result of a bullet wound and rushed her to hospital.
The county commissioner said, the girl who had the bullet lodged on her left thigh was admitted at Mandera Referral Hospital awaiting surgery to remove the bullet. He however said doctors at the health facility had informed him that the victim was out of danger and in a stable condition.
Olenkoyo said, the county security team will sermon the administration in Bulla-Xawa, Somalia over the incident adding that, it is unacceptable for Kenyans to be shot inside their country by insurgents.
Incidents of people going about their day work been hit by stray bullets or building been destroyed by mortars fired in factional fighting the border town of Somalia is a common phenomenon that residents of Mandera have had to live with since the fall of central government in Somalia in 1990’s.