Report: Dozens killed, vanished as Kenya fights extremists


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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — At least 81 extremism suspects have been killed illegally or forced to disappear by Kenyan police in the country's coastal region after a series of attacks, a human rights organization said Wednesday.

Haki Africa said it had documented 22 deaths as a result of excessive force in police operations, four deaths in police custody, 31 extrajudicial killings and 24 enforced disappearances

Hussien Khalid, the group's executive director, said the report covers a period starting in 2012, when the government says the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group began retaliatory attacks against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in late 2011 to fight it.

Many more cases have been reported but the new report only includes incidents that can be verified, Khalid said.

Evidence points to police officers from the counterterrorism unit or other specialized units, he said.

The report calls for clarification from the government on who has been killed or disappeared by its agents since April 2012, any action taken against the agents and where the bodies are.

"The Kenyan government must furthermore clarify whether there is or has ever been in existence a shoot to kill or political assassination counter terrorism policy," it says.

Police said they would study the report before commenting.

Among the killings documented by the report is that of cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed, who had been sanctioned by the U.N. and U.S. for supporting the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab. He was shot dead in 2012 as he drove his wife to a hospital in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Since his death, extremists have presented him as a martyr in their propaganda videos.

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