Masked gunmen attacked two churches in the Kenyan city of Garissa during worship services Sunday, killing 17. The terrorist attack – which used grenades and guns – is the nation’s worst since October, when Kenyan military forces entered Somalia to push back al-Shabaab militias.
Some analysts suggest that al-Shabaab’s Islamist extremists are seeking to copy Boko Haram’s terrorism campaign against Nigerian churches, and worry that it might provoke similar retaliatory violence from Christians.
Garissa is the headquarters of the eastern Kenyan province that borders Somalia, and hosts one of the world’s largest refugee camps near Dadaab.