Hundreds protest against curfew after attacks in eastern Kenya
Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:51pm GMT
* Overnight curfew imposed after attacks by gunmen
* Government says curfew will help it secure the area
* Residents say curfew has affected tourism, fishing
By Joseph Akwiri
NAIROBI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Kenyans protested on Tuesday against a four-month government curfew imposed on the coastal county of Lamu after gunmen killed about 100 people there this year, authorities and residents said.
The government last week extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew until the end of November, saying it was meant to help police provide security in the region, close to southern Somalia.
But residents say it has further damaged trade and fishing which was already suffering after the attacks near Lamu, an ancient trading port and tourist resort which lies in an area of Kenya where local communities have a history of conflict over land, water and other resources.
Protesting youths threw rocks at those who opened their businesses on Tuesday, demanding they join the protests.
"We will demonstrate. We have also frozen all business activities. No shop will be opened and no boats will be available to ferry people from this island beginning today until the curfew is lifted," Ali Lali, 27, a protester, said.
Kenyan police dispersed the protesters, but many shops, hotels, offices and public transport remained closed.
An imam who helped organise the protests said the curfew was hurting the local economy.
"(Many) local hotels and businesses have closed down and thousands have lost jobs," Salim Ramadhan said. "The crime rate has gone up because people cannot even go fishing, and yet fishing is the key source of livelihood here."
Lamu County Governor Issa Timamy said protesters were calling on the government to lift the curfew in areas that had come under attack.
"A blanket curfew across the whole of Lamu is unfair because some of the areas are safe. The curfew should be lifted in these safe areas so that locals can work and earn their living," Timamy said.
Authorities in Lamu county said the curfew would remain, to improve security.
"The county badly needs peace and we are not going to entertain anything less than that. The government's mandate is to ensure peace and calm and that is exactly what we'll do," Fredrick Ndambuki, Lamu county deputy Commissioner said.
The chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, Eric Mutua, has said that he would take legal action against David Kimaiyo, the inspector general of police over the curfew, saying keeping it in place for months was unreasonable.
Hundreds of families have fled the area despite government assurances that the attacks will soon end. Kenya drafted its army to help fight the attackers who are believed to be hiding in forests around Lamu County.
Somali Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks in Lamu but Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta initially suggested local politicians were behind the raids, although he later said al Shabaab played a role in the violence. (Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Ugandan rebels weakened despite brutal attacks - Congo minister
Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:45pm GMT
By Aaron Ross
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct 28 (Reuters) - U gandan rebels suspected of massacring at least 80 people in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo this month have been depleted and are adopting new guerrilla tactics, the Congolese interior minister said on Tuesday.
Violence simmers in Congo's rugged eastern borderlands more than a decade after the vast Central African nation's last war formally ended in 2003. A push by U.N. peacekeepers and government troops to stamp out residual armed groups has made progress following the defeat of M23, the zone's strongest insurgency, last year.
However, fighters believed to belong to the Islamist ADF-NALU attacked villages near the town of Beni in a series of overnight raids this month, hacking their victims to death with hatchets and machetes.
"We know they are weakened in numbers ... Now they act in small groups using guerrilla tactics and rely on surprise," Richard Muyej told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"We are trying to redeploy our troops to try to combat their new strategy. It's very early to say that we've succeeded. But we're on the right path," he said.
Muyej said that 45 suspects had been arrested in connection with the attacks.
President Joseph Kabila was due to visit Beni on Wednesday.
The Congolese army launched Operation Sukola against the ADF-NALU in January with the backing of the country's U.N. mission, MONUSCO, forcing the rebels out of all their known bases, according to a June report by a panel of U.N. experts.
Estimates of their strength vary greatly, but MONUSCO's website put their forces at around 500 fighters.
Muyej's comments echoed those of Martin Kobler, the head of MONUSCO, who told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that operations in recent months had weakened the rebels and allowed tens of thousands of local residents to return to their homes.
Kobler warned, however, that a battered ADF-NALU could be using attacks on civilians to draw the Congolese army away from offensive operations.
The killings sparked anger in Beni last week as residents accused the U.N. soldiers of not doing enough to protect them. Crowds of mainly young men attacked several of the mission's facilities in North Kivu province, throwing stones and forcing the evacuation of staff.