Police launch manhunt for mastermind in Garissa GSU attack

Police have launched a manhunt for an Al- Shabaab militant suspected to have been involved in the attack that led to the death of 10 General Service Unit(GSU) officers in Garissa County.

The suspect, Abdullahi Banati, is reported to have led the team that planted the Improvised Explosive Devices(IED) leading to the death of the officers stationed at the Harhar GSU camp on October 12th 2019.

According to the police, Banati planned the attack alongside Al-Shabaab operatives based in the Daadab camp which has been associated with several other terrorist attacks.

Preliminary investigations further revealed that Banati and his team operate along the Kenya-Somali border and have been executing attacks, not just against the public but against the security forces.

“Police have traced the activities of Banati and his team of militants to the border and it is suspected that he escaped to Somalia with the rest of the operatives,” said police in a statement.

After monitoring their activities, Banati and his team are said to have escaped into the Neighboring country of Somalia.

Banati is reported to have joined the militant group in 2012 and took part in the attack on the Baure Kenya Defense Forces(KDF) camp in 2015 where 11 of his colleagues were killed.

He is reported to have been injured but went into hiding only to resurface in 2018 when he took part in several attacks along the Somalia border.

Police have now appealed to members of the public with any information on the suspect to report it to them immediately.

The officers from the Harhar GSU camp lost their lives at Degow, on the road between Liboi and Damajale close to the Kenya-Somalia border as they were conducting a routine security patrol at around 4pm.

A joint patrol team of officers drawn from Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), Administration Police, Rapid Border Patrol Unit and Kenya Police Service have since been deployed to comb the area around the scene of the incident.