Grenade attack in Kenya refugee camp kills two

Dadaab Refugee Camp (Kenya): Two youths have died and several people were wounded during a grenade attack at a refugee camp in eastern Kenya near Somalia, a journalist and police said.

The journalist viewed two bodies, while the Red Cross said on its Twitter account that seven people had also been wounded in an attack on Friday on a restaurant in the Dadaab refugee camp complex, the world’s biggest, which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border with Somalia.

Attacks have increased within Kenya since Nairobi sent army soldiers into southern Sudan to fight Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in late 2011.

Kenyan troops, now integrated into the African Union force, seized the Shebab bastion of Kismayo, a key southern Somali port, in September. That led to warnings of retaliation from both the Islamist insurgents and their Kenyan supporters.

But the Shebab have denied involvement in previous similar bombings.

Violence in Kenya — ranging from attacks blamed on Islamists, inter-communal clashes and a police crackdown on a coastal separatist movement — have raised concerns over security ahead of elections due in March 2013.

Five years ago, elections descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya’s image as a beacon of regional stability.