Now Kenya [to] seal off border with Somalia

Kenya has Friday sealed off its border with Somalia following intensified fighting in that country.

Kenyan security agents are on high alert along stretches of the common border to ensure none of the rival armed groups enter the country.

Mandera police chief Leonard Omukata however said refugees fleeing fighting in Somalia will still be allowed to enter Kenya, but only at specific border crossing points where they will be screened by security and immigration officials.

Omukata said the entry points at Liboi and Mandera townships are still open.

Wajir police chief Julius Kitili said the Amuma boarder point in Wajir District was completely sealed off, and security officers are on alert at other entry points in Garissa and Ijara districts.

Thursday, pressure mounted on Kenya, currently the IGAD chair to intervene and bring the two warring parties in Somalia to dialogue.

Human rights groups in Nairobi want Kenya to intervene to avoid escalation of violence in the war torn country.

The move comes after the UN Security Council failed to agree on a call for the withdrawal of foreign forces.

The UIC assumed control of the capital in June, driving warlords out and rapidly extending their influence to much of southern Somalia - with the exception of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional Somali government.

That body, set up in 2004 after talks between Somali factions, has been unable to meet in the capital because of opposition first from warlords, then from the UIC.

Almost all Somalis are Muslim and after years of lawlessness, many were happy to have some kind of law and order under the UIC.

But some are wary of the hardline elements among the UIC.

The UIC have staged public executions and floggings of people they have found guilty of crimes such as murder and selling drugs.

UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is accused by both Ethiopia and the US of having links to al-Qaeda - charges he denies.