|
About
18 policemen on the mission to hunt notorious Somali bandits
in Northern Tanzania have serious injured in a motor accident
along the boarder with Kenya.
The Acting
Arusha Regional Police Commander, ACP Wenceslaus Magoha said
yesterday here that the accident which occurred at Namanga
in Monduli District on Saturday morning, involved the Field
Force Officers. According to him the police were driving in
a vehicle, STG 897 to Kimbeine village to hunt Somali bandit
following a tip that the trouble makers and notorious killers,
Somali Bandits were in the village.
He told
the press that the conditions of 10 policemen including the
Namamga Officer Commanding Station (OCS), Duwan Nyanda, were
serious injured and were being hospitalized at the regional
Mount Meru Hospital. "All the policemen were from the Field
Force Unit (FFU) and they were on their way to hunt the bandits,"
he said.
The accident
which occurred after the vehicle overturned few kilometers
from Namanga after it's driver, Corporal Gabriel failed to
control the vehicle, now adds to almost three accidents for
the period of 40 days in Tanzania. At least 18 people have
died from these accidents which occurred in various places
of the country.
Efforts
by Tanzania and Kenya to strengthen security around their
boarders to arrest Somali bandits with high calibre weapons,
appear to be completely ineffective. In last month some seven
armed Somalis raided Masaai tribesmen at Kitumbaine in Ngorongoro
district and stole about Tshs2.8 million. Maasai people were
raided as they were on the way to Monduli district for an
auction mart.
Being
ex-solders with sub machine guns, Somali bandits fired gun
shoots to the air which scarred Maasai people who were in
a lorry, and stole apart from money, several properties and
other belongings whose amount could not be established. Somali
bandits continue to threaten lives of Maasai people in northern
Tanzania.
Digodigo
village in Loliando in Arusha region was attached mid April.
During that incident two villagers were killed and several
others were injured. For more than three years now, the Somali
bandits have been launching attacks on villages in northern
Tanzania, especially areas cross to the border of Kenya and
Tanzania.
In March
a team of the FFU was dispatched by air and road in Ngorongoro
District to hunt for several armed Somali bandits who killed
a pastor. The Pastor, Mr. John Majoel of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Tanzania (ELCT) was shot to death on his back after
he allegedly refused to get out of his car, Toyota Land Cruiser.
The Pastor
was traveling with four European Missionaries to Ngorongoro,
one of the famous Tanzania's National Park, on routine pastoral
work. In April this year, the policemen from Kenya and Tanzania
signed a pact to intensify the joint security operations along
their common boarders, but their effort is unfruitful. Residents
suggest the deployment of an army unit to curb constant attacks
mounted by the Somali bandits in the area.
Suggestions
follows the endless attacks which since 1998 have killed at
least a dozen people and robbed millions of shillings from
residents in the region. Two years ago, Somali bandits murdered
the Ngorongoro District Commanding Officer, SSP Issaya Kong'oa,
and about 10 Maasai tribesmen. Residents in the area want
the government to deploy the arm, but the government is still
reluctant to implement the idea.
"The killings
of residents in Ngorongoro district by armed bandits does
not warrant the deployment of the army," so says the Minister
for Home Affairs, Mohammed Seif Khatib. Khatib says the number
of Tanzanians killed by Somali bandits was still small if
deaths in other parts of the Tanzania were taken into considerations.
The army
will normally be deployed if there was tension between one
nation and the other, he says, urging that the police force
will continue to provide security along the common boarder
with Kenya. The residents say that Police have failed to provide
security in the area, as Somalis were armies with advanced
fighting tactics.
|
