Ethiopian troops kill 15 bandits fleeing from Kenya

By Kenyan newspaper The People on Sunday

NAIROBI, July 17, 2005 — Ethiopian troops sealed off the common border and gunned down 15 bandits escaping into the neighbouring country [Ethiopia] after killing over 70 residents of Marsabit District northern Kenya last Tuesday [12 July], we can reveal.

Sources told The People on Sunday that upon receiving reports of the Tuesday dawn raid that claimed over 70 lives from its mission in Nairobi, Addis Ababa dispatched its security forces to the common border to ensure the bandits did not cross over to the Ethiopian side.

According to the reports, the security forces were just in time to intercept hundreds of bandits as they attempted to cross to the Ethiopian side.

In the ensuing exchange of fire, which our sources described as vicious, the Ethiopian troops managed to overpower the bandits before killing 15.

The exchange between the Ethiopian forces and the bandits, suspected to have committed the atrocities in Marsabit District, took place between Tatesa point and Hurri hills along the Kenya-Ethiopia border, we learnt.