The Kenya–Somalia border, closed for 15 years due to repeated Islamist militant attacks, is set to reopen in April, Kenyan President William Ruto announced Thursday.
The frontier was shut in October 2011 after repeated assaults by Al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency against Somalia’s central government for over a decade and a half.
“It is unacceptable that fellow Kenyans in Mandera remain cut off from their kin and neighbours in Somalia due to the prolonged closure of the Mandera Border Post,” Ruto wrote on X, adding that the border will reopen in April.
The two nations had previously agreed in May 2023 to a phased reopening, but the plan was halted two months later following attacks near the frontier that left five civilians and eight police officers dead, blamed on Al-Shabaab. Earlier talks during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also raised reopening hopes, which never materialized.
Kenya contributes troops to the African Union mission fighting Al-Shabaab, reflecting the security stakes tied to the border. The two countries share a 680-kilometre (420-mile) land border and have long been at odds over a potentially oil- and gas-rich section of the Indian Ocean. In October 2021, the UN’s top court awarded most of the area to Somalia, a ruling Kenya rejected.
The reopening signals a step toward easing cross-border tensions while maintaining vigilance against ongoing security threats.
