Kenya launched an operation to flush out Al-Shabab terrorists from the northeast Boni Forest on the border with Somalia in 2015. The operation was meant to last a few months but – nearly five years later – security forces are still struggling to stamp out the Islamist militants. Villagers are afraid to venture into the forest and a deadly January attack on the county’s joint Kenya-US military base has highlighted ongoing insecurity, the militants launched a brazen assault on a joint Kenya-U.S. military base in Lamu County, Kenya in January. Three Americans were killed. Somalia-based al-Shabab has been attacking and fighting Kenyan troops since 2011, when the government sent soldiers into Somalia to combat the militant group.
SOURCE: VOA
