Rival gangs trade accusation as more are injured in Mombasa

They fight to maim and kill - with pangas, knives and their bare hands. And they post their acts on social media to prove their resilience.

Some social media posts seen by The Standard showed one of the groups going round boasting about their prowess and vowing to finish their opponents.

These are the latest groups of youths who have been terrorising residents of Mombasa's Kibokoni and Majengo. The two areas are thought to be Mombasa's most populous.

Two youths are nursing serious injuries following attacks allegedly perpetrated by rival out on a revenge attack.

Adnan Salim Said, 24, was resident of Kibokoni, but had to move to Sparki after he was attacked by one of the gangs' members. He suffered serious stab wounds on his head, ear and back.

He was attacked on April 19 at the Ujamaa Hall in Majengo, where he had been attending a relative's wedding ceremony.

"I had joined the rest of my family at the wedding reception and did not expect that I would come under this brutal attack that has left me bed-ridden," said Mr Salim (pictured) yesterday.

Salim said he identified some of his attackers and named them in a statement recorded at the police. Those he identified, he said, were from Majengo.

Mama Lubna Nassir, alias Mama Beauty, appealed to those who attacked her son Salim Ahmed, 32, to come out and seek forgiveness. Ahmed was seriously injured.

"I'm a mother and heartbroken following the attack on my son, who was also robbed of a bicycle and his personal effects a few metres from our home at Kidogo Basi," said Ms Nassir.

But speaking at the Central Police Station, Mombasa, where they had gone to surrender to police, youths drawn from Kibokoni and led by a Mombasa-based civil society group, Haki Africa, blamed their counterparts from Majengo for flouting a truce to end their differences.

"We have reformed and fully integrated back into the community after thorough counseling. It is our colleagues from Majengo who have been carrying out revenge attacks and injuring our people," said one Tawfiq Abdalah Ali.