Mombasa church attack leaves official dead

Gunmen on a motorbike Sunday afternoon shot dead an official at a church in Mombasa in an attack.

The gunmen rode to the Maximum Revival Centre in Majengo and opened fire fatally hitting the church secretary before escaping.

Witnesses said the gang rode off soon after the shooting that happened as the church congregation was in session at an open field at a primary school. The official is said to have been shot as he walked in.

The motive of the attack is yet to be known but officials say they suspect it could be part of a wider terror network in the area.

“They shot at the secretary killing him. We suspect these are terror elements operating here,” said an officer who asked not to be named.

Sympathisers of Al-Shabaab terror group operate freely in Mombasa and have in the past threatened to kill pastors as a revenge to the killing of their Sheikhs.

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Majengo hosts some of the mosques that have been at the centre of police crackdowns in the past months amid claims guns were hidden there. One person was in November 2014 killed in one of the operations there.