Kenya's border with Somalia will re-open in April almost 15 years after it shut because of attacks by Islamist militant group al-Shabab, President William Ruto has announced.
Based in Somalia, the group has masterminded a series of deadly assaults including one on a shopping centre in the capital, Nairobi, killing 67 people in 2013 and one at a university in Garissa two years later killing 148.
The plan has been announced before, in 2023, but further attacks postponed the arrangements.
Ruto said the intention to re-open two crossings follows years of security assessments, adding that there will be a heavy deployment of security forces to ensure the move does not compromise safety.
The president announced the plan on a visit to the border town of Mandera, in Kenya's far north-east, which has a large population of ethnic Somalis.
