Victims of Tarbaj attack narrate how militiamen invaded village

 

Habiba Bage prepares tea for her baby at Tarbaji IDP camp where 310 displaced people are being hosted because of clan fighting between Garre and Degodia in Wajir [PHOTO MOSES OMUSULA]

MANDERA/WAJIR: Deep in thought, Ms Habiba Alasow holds her chin desolately as she gazes absentmindedly at the thicket near her makeshift house at an Internally Displaced Persons camp a few kilometres from Tarbaj Centre.

The mother of five has been living in the camp for three weeks and is mourning the death of her husband, brother and mother-in-law killed by militiamen, when one of the Somali warring clans raided their village and others killing people senselessly in the inter-clan clashes between the Garre against the Degodia.

“It was 7am. I had come from milking the camels and going about my daily chores when suddenly the militia hit our village,” she narrates.

“My husband, brother and other people were seated outside the house when the gang attacked. I was in the Manyatta and heard them writhe in pain before they collapsed and died,” recalls Hassan. According to her, it is by sheer luck that she is still alive, given that some of those she ran away with were felled by the bullets.

TAKES COVER

“The first impulse was to leave. I held my two children, the youngest in my back, and we ran away, carrying nothing else. There was not time to pack,” she says. She continues, “Even as we ran, we knew we were more exposed to danger because we could have been running to the militias’ hands, but I had to seek refuge elsewhere,” she says.

She says among those left behind were old people and children, who seemed helpless and might have been killed in the fire that consumed their houses as the militiamen moved to wipe the remaining traces of the villagers.

“They came to our village to clear us all. I thank God I am still alive,” she says as she soothes her four-year-old son, who has been crying of hunger.

Omar Ali Suleiman, a Burmayo village resident, is another survivor who escaped death narrowly after he took cover on a thorny tree as the militia he claims came from the Garre clan wreaked havoc in their village. “I watched as they annihilated the village. I took cover from a thorn tree and could not come down because I would have been killed. I heard about the 100 militia say ‘let us wipe them all,”. For two hours, the father of nine says he was forced to withstand the pain of thorns pricking him to save his life. Sadly though, he could not save the lives of his wife and one-year-old son, who succumbed to the inferno.

“I could not defend my family because I would have died in the process. At least I survived to take care of my other children,” he said.

The Government claimed 12 people were killed in the attack, but Mrs Harkaba Aden, a resident of Gunana village where the killings ocured, is of different of opinion and claims more people could have been killed, given that several others were burnt in the Manyattas. “I hid in one of the huts as the rest burnt. I heard people writh in pain as they were burning. I believe they were not officially included among the dead,” says Mrs Aden whose husband and five children survived the ordeal.

A government official who sought anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter said more people from the official 31 could have died in the deadly inter-ethnic clashes. Another attack between Degodia and Gare clans was triggered by the death of three men from Degodia on May 13. Nunow Ali, 50, Aweys Ali, 35, and Bishar Hassan, 40, were clearing bushes on the Burmayo-Fincharo road between Wajir and Mandera counties when they were attacked by armed assailants from the opposite clan due to border conflict.

ANCESTRAL LAND

Soita Mwanja, Tarbaj Officer Commanding Police Division says the three were killed because the Garre community misinterpreted their move as an advance attempt to take over part of their ancestral land.

These was followed by retaliatory attacks two days later, where militia from the opposing community ambushed a car and killed five people including two children.

A couple of days later, three other people were killed in Takaba, in what triggered the deadly attack in Gunana, Orgalale and and Burmayo villages.

According to the Kenya Red Cross Assessment Report, 230 houses were burnt with an estimated more than 100 houses looted of their valuables after their owners fled to Gunana and Burmayo areas to seek refuge.

Consequently, primary and secondary schools, dispensaries and health centres were closed. The ten locations hard hit included Lehely, Bojigaras, Mansa, Burmayo, Ogoralle, Ber janai, Dunto, Basaneja, Gunana and Belowle where some teachers and health officers left for fear of their lives.

The scarcity of pasture, water and increase in settlements and concentration of people and livestock in the available water points is believed to be a major trigger of conflict in the border areas along the two counties.

However, according to Robow Mohamed, Majority Leader in the Mandera County Assembly, the source of the conflict was the border between Mandera and Wajir that has triggered the animosity between the two communities.

AFFECTED PEOPLE

“The killing of the three road workers triggered the violence which caused retaliatory attacks, including that of school going children. The problem is more about the boundaries and beyond. The Degodias also believe that the Mandera North Constituency should have been theirs to produce the MP,” explains Robow.

He says the violence affected the Sarman, Elben, Tarbaj, Kutulo, Batalu, Danaba, Quadama and Gulani centres, where the affected people are now camping.

The waves of inter clan clashes in Wajir – Mandera Border areas, left 20 people dead and several houses torched including some in Wagberi in the outskirts of Wajir town, according to Wajir County Commandant of Police David Kirui.

To Mr Omar Ali, a resident of Burmayo, but currently in a temporary makeshift camp in Sarman, while the recent killings were deadly, there have been sporadic killings everywher, however, with a small magnitude.

“There are cases where one person is killed here and another one killed there on different times, but this one was devastating, I have been separated with my family, I do not know where my wife and children are,” said Ali.