147 Killed In Kenya Varsity Terror Attack

Al-Shabab gunmen have attacked a college campus in the town of Garissa in North east Kenya, shooting indiscriminately in dormitories and killing at least 147 people and wounding 65 others, police said.

Witnesses said explosions and heavy gunfire rocked Garissa University College yesterday as the gunmen stormed the complex. Ambulances were seen driving injured students to local hospitals.

The gunmen were holding an “unknown number of student hostages,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement.

Some “150 students have been safely freed”, the organisation said. Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover, witnesses said.

Witnesses reported hearing sporadic exchanges of fire between police and the fighters. At least two police had been wounded in the clashes, though the extent of their injuries in not known.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya

The final death toll could be as high as 150, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing Kenyan officials.

Security forces had encircled the building exchanging sporadic bursts of gunfire with the fighters inside, who were believed to have been holding scores of students hostage.

Witnesses said that they heard heavy gunfire and saw smoke coming from the campus yesterday.

“I think the military is using all its might to finish the hostage situation. I don’t think this is a rescue mission anymore,” said Alinoor Moulid, a freelance journalist based in Garissa.

Surviving hostages said scores appeared to have been killed.

A female student said there were more bodies than she could count, while another student said he had seen more than 100 bodies.

Kenyan officials said four attackers had been killed and another had been arrested.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said the lack of security infrastructure had contributed to the crisis.

“We have suffered unnecessarily due to a shortage of security personnel. Kenya needs additional officers, and I will not keep the nation waiting,” he said.

The country’s interior ministry announced a twelve hour curfew starting at 630pm in Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, and Tana River counties.

Meanwhile, President Goolduck Jonathan yesterday condemned the attack on Garissa University College in Kenya the terrorist group Al-Shabab, describing it as atrocious, despicable and barbaric.

A statement issued by presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, noted that Jonathan extended his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Kenya and to the families of those who died “in the gruesome terrorist attack”.

He assured that country that Nigeria will continue to work with it, other African countries and the international community to rid the world of all terrorist groups.

Abati stated: “President Jonathan utterly condemns the deliberate targeting of innocent persons, schools and other soft targets by terrorists as such atrocious, despicable and barbaric acts of violence ought to have no place in any civilized society.

“The President assures President Uhuru Kenyatta and the brotherly people of Kenya that Nigeria stands in full solidarity with them as they come to grips once again with the aftermath of another heinous terrorist attack on their country.

“The President believes that the attack on the Kenyan University and other similar atrocities across the world must strengthen and solidify the resolve of the global community to take more urgent and co-ordinated actions to speedily defeat the agents of global terror”.