Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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           German Tourist Killed on Increasingly Violent Kenyan Coast

   by VOA News

   A German female tourist was killed in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa
   on Thursday in the same area where a Russian visitor was murdered
   earlier in July by a criminal gang, police sources said.

   No one has claimed responsibility for the shooting.

   Khalid Ibrahim, a community security official in Mombasa's historic Old
   Town, was one of the first on the scene after the shooting, and said he
   had alerted police, according to the French news agency AFP.

   "Three men ran off after the attack," Ibrahim said, adding that the
   tourist had been shot once at point blank range.

   Kenya's coast has been the scene of a series of bombings and shootings
   by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants and gunmen that have left dozens
   of Kenyans dead in recent months.

   Peace Corps suspends program

   Meanwhile, the United States Peace Corps program - which has about 50
   volunteers working in sometimes remote parts of Kenya - said on
   Thursday it was suspending operations and pulling out volunteers due to
   growing security concerns.

   A statement to The Associated Press from the State Department said that
   the Peace Corps "has been closely monitoring the security environment
   in Kenya ... and has decided to officially suspend the program in
   Kenya."

   The Peace Corps will monitor the security situation and determine when
   volunteers can return, it said.

   Some Western nations have warned against travel to Mombasa because of
   the violence.

   "A female tourist was shot in Kibokoni area," Robert Sicharani, head of
   Tourist Police Unit in Kenya's Coast region, told Reuters, adding that
   the case was being investigated. "She was confirmed dead at the
   hospital," he said.

   He did not give details about the woman's identity but a police source,
   who asked not to be named, said she was a 28-year-old German and that
   she had not been robbed.

   The source said her Ugandan male companion was injured in the attack.

   A Russian woman was killed by a gang which had robbed her companions on
   July 6 in the same area, which lies near Mombasa's historic Fort Jesus.

   Militants, gunmen

   Last month al-Shabab, which has carried out a number of attacks on
   Kenyan soil in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in
   Somalia, warned foreign tourists to stay out of Kenya, AFP reported.

   "Kenya is now officially a war zone and as such any tourists visiting
   the country do so at their own peril," the group said in a statement in
   June.

   VOA also reported on Thursday that nearly 100 people have died since
   mid-June in [1]a series of ambushes and raids in northern Kenya's
   coastal Lamu County.

   Despite the heavy presence of Kenyan security forces, civilians are
   increasingly targeted in the attacks, forcing many locals to flee or
   spend their nights in government facilities.

   Colonel Benjamin Mwema, spokesperson for the Political Parties
   Collaborative Leaders Forum, an umbrella organization for Kenyan
   politics, said the ongoing violence is turning Kenya's coastal region
   into a breeding ground for terrorists.

   Mohammed Yusuf contributed to this report from Nairobi. Some
   information for this report provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/german-tourist-killed-on-kenyan-coast
   /1964882.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/kenyan-civilians-increasingly-targeted-in-coastal-violence/1964701.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/german-tourist-killed-on-kenyan-coast/1964882.html