Heavy toll after Kenyan army helicopter crashes during night patrol

A military helicopter in Kenya crashed overnight while on patrol in the coastal county of Lamu, killing all crew on board, the BBC reported.

It went down in the Boni forest, an area that straddles the border with Somalia and from where the Somali militant group al-Shabab has staged deadly attacks.

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has not indicated how many people were onboard the helicopter when it crashed. However, some media reports have said that at least eight people died in the incident

“The crew and other military personnel onboard were part of an air surveillance squadron intensifying day and night patrols and surveillance for the on-going Operation Amani Boni,” the KDF in a statement.

A board of inquiry had been dispatched to the scene in Boni forest to establish the cause of the crash, it said.