Militant group killed bus passengers based on religion
Eight Seventh-day Adventists were among 28 bus passengers massacred by militants in Mandera, Kenya on November 22.
According to CNSnews.com, members of a Somalia-based militant group stopped the Nairobi-bound vehicle and questioned passengers to determine whether they were Muslims. Eyewitnesses said those who answered unsatisfactorily were taken aside and shot.
The militant group claimed responsibility for the massacre in a statement. The group called the Christian victims “crusaders” and said the attack was in response to police raids conducted the previous week on mosques in Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city.
Representatives of the Adventist Church's East-Central Africa Division confirmed that at least eight Adventists were killed in the massacre.
CNSnews also reported the 59-passenger bus was also carrying a number of teachers and health workers who were heading home for the Christmas holidays.
Mandera is the capital of the Mandera District in northeastern Kenya near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia.