MOMBASA, Kenya - Gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two separate areas on the Kenyan coast, the interior ministry said on Sunday. The Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September, said it had staged an attack on Saturday evening in the coastal area. Nine people lost their lives at the Hindi trading centre in Lamu county, near the scene of attacks in which 65 people were killed last month, Mwenda Njoka, the ministry's spokesman told Reuters. Another 20 people were killed in another attack in the Gamba area of neighbouring Tana River county. "The number could rise," Njoka said.
Officials said a group of 10-15 men struck at Hindi, close to the town of Mpeketoni, which was nearly destroyed in one of the attacks in June, on Saturday. "They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately," Abdallah Shahasi, the area chief, told Reuters.
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