Livestock rustlers kill at least 11 in Kenya

ISIOLO, Kenya, May 10 (Reuters) Livestock rustlers have killed at least 11 people in Kenya's remote north where clashes over scant resources and cattle often flare, the Red Cross said today.

Raiders from the Gabra community attacked rivals from the Turkana tribe on Tuesday killing 11 residents in a village in Loyangalani along the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana.

''So far 11 people from Moite village have died. Tension is still high and many people have fled their homes,'' Ahmed Mohamed, a Kenya Red Cross official told Reuters.

Mohamed, who is in charge of disaster management, said one raider was killed by security forces yesterday night in the region, close to the border with Ethiopia.

About 1,080 livestock were stolen during two days of fighting, he said.

Rustling raids are common among the pastoral communities that roam Kenya's desolate north, a region long neglected by the central government.

Critics say such attacks underscore the difficulty Kenya has in policing its remote northern areas, which for years under colonial rule were restricted areas of forbidding terrain with almost no infrastructure or roads.

REUTERS DS PM1850