Eight people have been killed after gunmen ambushed a security vehicle escorting road construction workers in Mandera County, north-eastern Kenya, on Tuesday morning.

The attack happened at Koromey, near Hagarsu along Arabia Road, where the team was working on the Mandera-Arabia-Lafey road project. Heavily armed assailants opened fire on the vehicle assigned to protect personnel travelling to the site.

Seven victims died at the scene. The driver of the security vehicle suffered severe gunshot wounds and died while being rushed to Mandera County Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Engineers and police reservists among dead

According to preliminary police reports, five of those killed were engineers attached to the construction project. Two were Kenya Police Reservists, members of the local security force assigned to protect the workers. The eighth victim was the driver of the security vehicle.

A senior police officer confirmed the attack, and additional security personnel have been deployed to the area. A multi-agency operation is under way to pursue the attackers, and Mandera South MP Abdul Haro condemned the killings, describing them as a cowardly act against people serving their country and building infrastructure.

Road project at the centre of border security fears

The Mandera-Arabia-Lafey road links Mandera town with Arabia and Lafey, communities along the border, and is listed among the transport routes in Mandera County's roads and public works programme. Construction crews working on the corridor travel with armed escorts because of the security threat in the area.

Reports of the attack said the gunmen blocked the route before opening fire on the vehicle. The names and employers of the engineers killed had not been publicly confirmed in the first reports, and police had not released further details of the victims by the time of publication.

The Arabia-Lafey corridor has previously seen attacks on construction crews, quarry workers and security personnel, and the pattern of Tuesday's ambush matches earlier attacks attributed to al-Shabaab in the area, although no group has claimed this one. Security agencies launched a multi-agency operation after the killings, deploying reinforcements and pursuing the attackers across the border region.

No group has claimed responsibility

No group had formally claimed responsibility for the ambush by the time of publication, and the identities and motives of the gunmen had not been established. The area lies near the Kenya-Somalia border, a region where al-Shabaab militants have previously targeted infrastructure projects, workers and security personnel.

The attack underlines the security risks facing infrastructure work in the border region, where construction crews travelling between sites depend on armed escorts. Separate suspected militant attacks were reported in Garissa and Mandera over the weekend, adding to concern about the safety of workers and residents in the area.

Authorities say investigations are continuing as security forces work to secure the road corridor and track down those behind the ambush.