Police Seize 2 Rocket-Propelled Grenades & Other Heavy Weapons After Al Shabaab Gunfight
The camp had housed the militants who had engaged the officers in a gunfight on Monday, May 22 before they escaped.
Marvin Chege 
An elite unit of the Administration Police (AP), the Special Operations Group (SOG), recovered a cache of heavy weapons following a shootout with 10 suspected members of the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist outfit Al-Shabaab in Garissa County.
A statement from the National Police Service (NPS) on Tuesday, May 23 revealed that the weapons were seized from a temporary camp which SOG officers managed to track from footprints spotted nearby.
The camp had housed the militants who had engaged the officers in a gunfight on Monday, May 22 before they escaped.
Assortment of weapons recovered following gunfight with Al Shabaab on May 22, 2023. /NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE
"On 22 May 2023, at around 1100hrs while along Diiso, Biamthow SOG Officers on patrol found fresh footprints at Billow Dam and after tracking the footprints for about 2.7 km, where they came across a makeshift camp with about 10 suspected Alshabaab militants engaged in a shootout, and the militants escaped," stated NPS in part.
The police afterwards seized the weapons that included two rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) with seven warheads, six AK-47 rifles with 20 magazines and a PK Machine gun with a belt of 200 rounds.
Also recovered were two hand grenades, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) materials, a food cache, a cell phone and Memory Card.
"Efforts are underway to arrest the suspects," added NPS.
The operation came almost a month after police officers on Sunday, April 30 arrested four armed male suspects at Nuno, Garissa County bearing an assortment of military weapons.
The officers from Garissa Police Station in collaboration with Border Police Unit took swift action by intercepting a white vehicle make Toyota Probox in the Nuno area following a tip-off from members of the public.
The police then set up a roadblock and waved down the vehicle, registered as KDL 610A, which was ferrying the suspects who were heavily armed.
"In a surreptitious operation conducted by officers from AP’s elite Border Police Unit, 4 AK-47 assault riffles, over 540 rounds of 7.62x39mm calibre, machetes, ballistic helmets, military fatigues among other weapons were recovered from the four suspects," a statement on the operation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) revealed in part.
The officers based at Modika Camp mobilised with speed & efficiency and intercepted the four identified as Osman Yussuf Gure, 40, Ali Farah Dagane, 39, Ahmed Mohamed Gedi, 29 and Abdullahi Ali Omar, 38.
They all donned military gear, each armed with an AK-47 rifle and hundreds of ammunition.
"Also recovered were a balaclava, a ballistic helmet, a knife and a machete," stated the NPS.
