A member of the Al-Shabaab militant group who claimed to have participated in the battle of El Adde has surrendered.
According to various media sources, Kenyan authorities said they are holding Khalif Abdinoor Mohamed who has been working with Somalia based Al-Shabaab terror group since 2013.
Police said the suspect communicated with Burahale Station police boss, who facilitated his travel to Mandera County, where he surrendered to the authorities.
Reportedly, detectives attached to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit in Mandera interrogated the terror suspect Tuesday to establish his motive amid plans to transport him to Nairobi, where he is set to be grilled further on his role in the militant group’s activities.
It is claimed that Mohamed ran away from Al Shabaab on August 30, 2020 at around 6 pm. Police said at 9 pm, he reached Borehole 11 and was able to communicate with the OCPD Burahale who then facilitated his movement.
The suspect also surrendered an AK47 Butt Number 20 and three magazines with 92 rounds of ammunition.
Detectives said that Mohamed was born in Bura at the Kenyan-Somalia border in a family of eight.
During his interrogation, the suspect said he trained with Alshabaab at Saakow at the Saretha Kulmiye training school in Somalia.
He also told police that he went through a nine-month extensive training in “Buale where he received GPS training, how to use Motorola and how to carry out recon on camps and conduct assassinations.”
The militant also told detectives that he was part of Al-Shabaab fighters who were deployed along the Kenya- Somalia border in Elram and Khorof Harar where a mast was recently brought down.
Mohamed is said to be among jihadists who have been carrying out a series of attacks along the Kenya-Somalia border where several Safaricom masts have been brought down to interfere with communication.
They operate in small groups of twelve that are part of a larger group of between 30-36 operatives. They always spend three nights only in one location before moving to another area, police said.
The terrorists also use motorbikes to access difficult terrain and according to Mohammed, they only use hand-held Motorolas for communicating while combat radios are only available in the militant group’s headquarters at Kukumo, Somalia.
He also disclosed that militants were planning a major attack on Elram Camp in Mandera County.
The El Adde raid is one of the deadliest attacks on Kenyan troops; a band of about 300 militants staged a dawn attack on the Kenyan-run AMISOM army base in the town of El Adde, Gedo, Somalia on January 15, 2016, killing over 150 Kenyan troops.
