Kenya Closes Border with Somalia

By Eddyson Lugangwa Posted 04 January 2007 @ 03:07 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

NAIROBI (IBTimes.com) - Kenya said Thursday it has closed its border with Somalia in an apparent effort to keep Islamic militants and refugees from entering the country. "The Kenyan border is officially closed," Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju told The Associated Press, but he did not say when the decision was made or how the border would remain closed.

Kenya has sent extra troops to its northern frontier with Somalia. The U.N.'s humanitarian agency said Wednesday that about 4,000 Somali refugees were reported to be near the Somali border town of Dhobley, unable to cross into Kenya.

That same day, a Kenyan security helicopter and a Kenyan air force plane were fired at by unidentified gunmen on either side of the border. Tuju said he had no information on the incidents. The minister told journalists on Wednesday that Kenya will not allow Somali refugees into the country following the routing of Somalia's Islamic movement because Kenya did not know of any threat facing the refugees.