Nairobi (The Nation, January 13, 2001) - Our correspondent, SAID WABERA, was part of a team of journalists invited to tour Wajir District in the wake of a raid on local residents. He brings you this report and photos.

The attack was executed with all the elements of a military script - speed, precision and surprise.

At exactly 4.34am, on a foggy Friday morning last December, the earth shook under Ali Abdi's feet. He was heading home from the nearby Jamia mosque after early morning prayers. At first, he heard what sounded like a huge water-tank rolling down. Then the sky over the sleepy trading centre of Gurar lit up.

Situated at the foot of Ethiopian Highlands and surrounded by the picturesque Malaba Hills, some 200 kms north of Wajir town but less that 20 kms from the Ethiopian border with Kenya, Gurar is normally a peaceful centre.

Abdi looked up. For a split second, he admired the bright lights in the sky. Then he realised the source was tracer bullets speeding across the sky. Whoever had released them was well-armed, from the concentration of the fire-power.

Clutching his prayer-beads in his right hand, a few metres from his home, Abdi picked out the staccato of AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle. The thunder from the sound of falling bazookas hitting the nearby compound brought him sharply back to reality.

People were screaming all over the village. The sky rapidly changed from white to deep orange and, within minutes, there was fire everywhere. The raiders had torched several homes within the vicinity.

He watched in horror as the raiders locked from outside the door of his neighbour, Yusuf Gedow, and his family of five - including Gedow's wife, mother and his three children - and torched his house.

The screams for help still ring in his mind, Abdi told journalists recently. "It was the most painful death I have ever witnessed - more painful than an attack from wildlife when you are helpless," he said as he stared at the fire inside a makeshift kitchen in the police compound where his family sought refuge.

He said he had instinctively ran towards his house as his wife and two children rushed out in panic. Confusion, the fourth element in most of these attacks, reigned as the villagers ran here and there in the grip of fear.

Abdi stealthily led his family along a shaded path to the police post only a stone's throw away from his home as the policemen watched helplessly. There had been no time for them to group and respond to the attack. Many other families were not so lucky. As the handful policemen at the camp fought back and radioed for help, the raiders, believed to be Ethiopian, had a field day.

The more than 200 militiamen, in distinctive olive green military uniform, reportedly slipped into Kenya through the Danaba border point from Qadaduma in Ethiopia.

It was an orgy of destruction as they torched homes situated on the eastern part of the trading centre, which has a population of about 10, 000 people.

In less than half an hour, more that 40 homes and granaries had been razed. Fifteen villagers died in the attack, shot at close range as they ran out of their burning homes or burnt to death inside.

By the time help arrived from Bute, the sub-district's headquarters situated 28 kms away, the raiders had effectively sealed all points of entry or exit, including the strategic Gurar Pass. The centre was cut off and no reinforcements could enter to assist the besieged policemen.

More than 3,330 people were displaced during the attack seen in some quarters as part of long-running ethnic conflict. According to Councillor Abdi Shakur, 26 attacks took place last year. More than 40 people have been killed and over 15,000 head of cattle were stolen and taken across to Ethiopia.

Journalists on 12-day fact-finding tour of Wajir North Constituency to investigate the persistent raids and general insecurity spoke to residents of Bute, Buna, Gurar, Qud'ama, Ogomdi, Adai-Ijole, Bamba. They live as refugees.

Tension had been running high among the Ajuran and the Garri comunities following an attack in which 20 or so houses belonging to the Ajuran were razed and three people killed. The Ajuran comprise the entire Wajir North constituency.

Most of the displaced Garri now live in Danaba after they fled from their homes in Bute, Buna, Gurar, Ajaawa and the adjacent areas. They traditional lands straddle the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia and they mainly live in Takaba, Banissa and Rhamu of Mandera West Constituency. Like the Boran and Somali, they often have dual citizenship.

At the core of the conflict are contradicting reports on the status of Ires Teno location. According to the admininistrative map, the location is under the juridiction of Wajir District. A map at the DC's office indicating his area of jurisdiction clearly indicates this.

District Commissioner Fred Mutsami is categorical that Ires Teno belongs in Wajir North Constituency. When the location was created, according to the DC, a chief and a councillor from neighbouring Mandera District "overshot" their area of jurisdiction and attempted to settle the Garri in the far-flung area situated to the south west of Mandera town.

The Ajuran, who regard the location as theirs, were not amused. A lush grazing grounds famous for rearing camels and cattle, the area also has fertile soils washed twice yearly by rains from the Ethiopian highlands and more than adequate water supplies from traditional wells.

Cllr Shakur claims that angry Garri contesting the allocation sought the support of their kinsmen in Ethiopia in the struggle for the land, hence the persistent attacks from across the border.

The Ajuran, on their part, allegedly responded by forging an alliance with the Oromo Liberation Front rebels fighting the Ethiopian government. The Addis Ababa government believes that the OLF rebels operate around Sololo in Moyale and some areas of Marsabit and Isiolo districts - areas predominantly occupied by the Boran, who are perceived to be sympathetic to the rebels.

In a bid to ease the tensions, Kenya and Ethiopia have over the past couple of years held a series of high level meetings to discuss border security and particularly the OLF issue. A senior Ethiopian intelligence officer and Kenyan sources believe the attacks on the Ajuran were meant to disrupt the support that local people were giving the OLF.

"We cannot afford to mar the good relationship we have with Kenya, which did not start yesterday. But we are happy with the way things are at the moment until matters up north (Eritrea) return to normal," the Ethiopian official said.

Elders from both sides accuse the local administation of failing to implement and fortify resolutions made during the North Eastern Province Leaders Peace Conference held last year at Wajir Girls Secondary School which recommended solutions to the wrangles between the two communities.

Commenting on the Gurar attack during a baraza immediately after the attack, North Eastern PC Maurice Makhanu assured the residents that the government would investigate those behind the attacks and stamp out the raids once and for all.

He made a veiled reference to the Garri as the aggressors in the lastest attack. "We know our brothers, the Garri, are not happy with some of the decisions that we have made," he said.

Local residents view the local administration with a jaundiced eye. Mahat Mohammed, from Bute, said that government officials have come in for a great deal of criticism over their handling of the bandit situation over the past 30 years. Unless civil servants changed their attitude towards North Eastern Province, he argued, "the chances of sending us into obscurity is very high".

As the PC assured the cowed residents of intensified security, skulls and bones believed to be of the Ethiopian militiamen littered Bamba trading centre at the junction of Bute/Gurar/Takaba road.

They serve as a grim reminder of the constant threat of external aggression. The question on the minds of local residents remains: When will they enjoy the peace they are entitled to?

"We are no-longer sure or confident that our government officials in the area are working for this country!" they told the press in an interview in Ajaawa.

They said they know the government sends enough fund for development to the entire province.

"Every year our government dutifully allocate enough funds for development of the region, but the top civil servants divert the fund under the pretext of security operation.

"The government should investigate its officials if it wants the development funds not to end into the pockets of individuals," he said.