Kenya has announced it will reopen its border with Somalia, nearly 15 years after it was closed due to attacks by the Al-Shabaab group, Kenyan President William Ruto announced.
Al-Shabaab has been behind a series of deadly attacks in Kenya, including a shopping mall in the capital Nairobi that killed 67 people in 2013, and a Garissa University College attack two years later that killed 148.
Ruto said the plan to reopen the two border crossings was based on years of security assessments, adding that security forces would be deployed heavily to ensure the move did not pose a security threat.
The president announced the plan during a visit to the border town of Mandera in northeastern Kenya, which is home to a large Somali population.
“It is unacceptable that Kenyans in Mandera are being separated from their relatives and neighbours in Somalia because of the long-standing blockade of the Mandera border,” Ruto wrote on Twitter.
In his speech, he called on all people in Mandera, who have been targeted several times, to join the fight against al-Shabab.
“Al-Shabab are helpless, I want to assure you that Kenya will work with you, only help us in the fight against crime and terrorism,” the Kenyan president said.
In addition to the Westgate Mall and Garissa University attacks, other major attacks by al-Shabab in Kenya include the killing of 28 bus passengers in Mandera County in 2014 and an attack on a Nairobi hotel five years later, which left at least 21 people dead.
In 2015, Kenya began construction of a border fence along 680 km (423 miles) of its entire border, to prevent the threat of terrorism, but the project was halted nearly three years later after only 10 km (6 miles) of wire had been built, at a cost of $35 million.
