Nairobi - Kenyan police have arrested seven people in connection with last week's deadly village massacre in country's remote north as thousands continue to flee their homes fearing reprisals, officials said Monday.
Police said that among the seven detained, two had been positively identified as ringleaders in Tuesday's massacre in Turbi village that led to revenge attacks in the area which a total of 82 people were killed, including 26 children.
"We have arrested a total of seven people," said Robert Kipkemoi Kitur, the assistant commissioner of police in Kenya's Eastern Province near the border with Ethiopia where the attacks took place.
"Two of them have been positively identified as key suspects behind the Turbi massacre," he said by phone. "We are not badly off. We are working quite well with our counterparts in Ethiopia."
Meanwhile, the Kenyan Red Cross said the number of people to have fled their homes in the region to the relative safety of Marsabit, the nearest large town to Turbi, and other municipalities, had increased to 9 000 from the 6 000 reported late last week.
"In the whole, about 9 000 people have escaped into towns," said Farid Abdul Kadir, the Red Cross head of disaster response.
The brutal raid on Turbi has been blamed on members of the Borana clan who have long-standing feuds with the rival Gabra clan. - Sapa-AFP