Abdirahim Abdullahi is believed by Kenyan security forces to be one of the al-Shabaab gunmen who killed almost 150 students at the Garissa U...
Abdirahim Abdullahi is believed by Kenyan security forces to be one of the al-Shabaab gunmen who killed almost 150 students at the Garissa University College campus, on Thursday. An official statement from the University of Nairobi’s security department, published almost a week before the Garissa University College massacre, warned about the possibility of al-Shabaab carrying out a serious terror attack.
The statement, dated March 26, said:
“Intelligence reports indicate that the al-Shabaab terror group is planning retaliatory attacks on vital installations in Nairobi including a major university. The information is already being processed by the relevant government agencies with an objective of putting the necessary measures in place to foil any such attempts.
You are hereby advised to continue being vigilant and diligent while in the University and other crowded places. Be conscious of any suspicious persons and/or luggage as you go about your daily schedules.”
It was signed by W.M. Wahome, Chief Security Officer at Nairobi University. The son of a Kenyan government official is believed by authorities to be one of the four al-Shabaab gunmen who killed 148 people at the Garissa University College campus, on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Abdirahim Abdullahi was reported missing by his father, who promptly alerted security agents. “The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened,” government spokesman Mwenda Njoka told Reuters.
The latest revelations come as Christians in Kenya celebrate Easter amid extremely tight security, as priests and churchgoers have been targeted by Islamic extremists in the past.
Kenya’s president on Saturday vowed that he would take harsh retaliation against four Islamic militants who opened fire at a school near the Somali border, killing 148 people.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said during a nationally televised statement that those who organized and financed the attack on the school are “deeply embedded in our communities” and that his administration “shall respond in the severest ways possible.”
A survivor of the attack at Garissa University College was found hiding in a cupboard in her dormitory on Saturday, two days after terrorists stormed the campus killing almost 150 people. 19-year-old Cynthia Cheroitich was rescued shortly before 10 a.m. from inside a wardrobe in which she had covered herself with clothes, the Associated Press reported.
Cheroitich told the AP that she had refused to emerge from her hiding place despite some of her classmates doing so at the demands of the gunmen before being killed.
She said she spent two days praying and drinking body lotion because of her thirst and hunger.
The Christian teenager initially suspected her police rescuers were militants trying to trick her, but only emerged once one of her teachers appealed for her to come out of hiding. Kenyan authorities arrested three men on Saturday in connection to Thursday’s terror attack at Garissa University College, according to local reports.
The three individuals were arrested while trying to flee at the Somalia border. They are believed by officials to be associates of al-Shabaab mastermind Dulyadin Gamadhere. A total of five suspects are now being held in connection with the deadly attack, the BBC reported.
Kenyan security officials have arrested two more people in connection to the Garissa University College attack, according to the BBC. Many have also begun to question the possibility of Kenya government having received advance warning of possibly attacks from al-Shabaab, though officials have yet to confirm or deny these accounts.
The Daily Nation reported that on March 25, the administration at the University of Nairobi “warned its students that it had received intelligence information that terrorists were planning an attack on a university and asked them to be vigilant.”
Kenyan law enforcement has located one more missing student who was hiding out in Garissa University College’s student housing.
One witness, who was injured, said the gunmen separated people by genders. She survived because covered herself in someone else’s blood and played dead.
Witness and victim Helen Titus, 21, who was shot in the wrist, told the Associated Press she smeared her classmate’s blood on her face and hair and didn’t move, hoping the assailants would think she was dead.
The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, said Titus, who wore a patient’s gown as she sat on a bench in the hospital yard.
“We just wondered whether to come out or not,” she said. Many students did, whereupon the gunmen started shooting men, saying they would not kill “ladies,” Titus said. But they also shot women and targeted Christians, said Titus, who is a Christian.
The gunmen also seemed to know the layout and terrain well, and targeted a lecture hall where Christians were in early morning prayer, she said.
“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Titus said.
The White House released a statement on the Garrisa University College shooting, calling the attacks “cowardly.”
The United States is also “providing assistance to the Kenyan Government” and “will continue to partner with them as well as with others in the region to take on the terrorist group al-Shabaab.”
The announcement continued, “The United States stands with the people of Kenya, who will not be intimidated by such cowardly attacks.”
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery announced 147 people died in the attack on Garissa University College. The operation against the four gunmen, he said, has ended.
Most of the victims were students. Nkaissery added that the four attackers, two Kenyan police officers, and two security guards also died.
He added that the gunmen wore explosive devices filled with shrapnel.
Kenyan officials say that 518 students have now been accounted for, many of whom have been secured in a military compound near campus.
The names of the four gunmen who led the attack are not yet known, and Nkaissery did not officially confirm their affiliation with al-Shabaab.
“I want to assure Kenyans that although this was a very unfortunate incident, your government has you,” he said. “You need to know that your government is there to take care of your security.”
The National Disaster Operation Center in Kenya announced an increase in the number of Garissa University students who have been rescued from the attack, up more than 300 from earlier today.
Inspector General Joseph Boinnet has also imposed a 12-hour curfew in selected regions, beginning this evening and ending April 16.
The death toll in the university shooting has now increased to 70, according to the Associated Press. Nine people who sustained critical injuries in the Garissa attack have been airlifted to Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi.
The Ministry of Interior for Kenya has announced that two terrorists have been “neutralised” in the Garissa University shootings.
He later clarified that “neutralised” is “security speak for killed.” African Union Mission to Somalia Chief Dr. Maman Sidikou told BBC Africa, “Frankly, I’m a little bit shaken” because of the “targets they went after.”
The Zimbabwe Mail
The statement, dated March 26, said:
“Intelligence reports indicate that the al-Shabaab terror group is planning retaliatory attacks on vital installations in Nairobi including a major university. The information is already being processed by the relevant government agencies with an objective of putting the necessary measures in place to foil any such attempts.
 |
A survivor of the attack carried out by islamist gunmen from the extremist group, al-Shabaab, on the Garissa University campus in northern Kenya, is comforted by a colleague. Carl de Souza / AFP |
It was signed by W.M. Wahome, Chief Security Officer at Nairobi University. The son of a Kenyan government official is believed by authorities to be one of the four al-Shabaab gunmen who killed 148 people at the Garissa University College campus, on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Abdirahim Abdullahi was reported missing by his father, who promptly alerted security agents. “The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened,” government spokesman Mwenda Njoka told Reuters.
The latest revelations come as Christians in Kenya celebrate Easter amid extremely tight security, as priests and churchgoers have been targeted by Islamic extremists in the past.
Kenya’s president on Saturday vowed that he would take harsh retaliation against four Islamic militants who opened fire at a school near the Somali border, killing 148 people.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said during a nationally televised statement that those who organized and financed the attack on the school are “deeply embedded in our communities” and that his administration “shall respond in the severest ways possible.”
A survivor of the attack at Garissa University College was found hiding in a cupboard in her dormitory on Saturday, two days after terrorists stormed the campus killing almost 150 people. 19-year-old Cynthia Cheroitich was rescued shortly before 10 a.m. from inside a wardrobe in which she had covered herself with clothes, the Associated Press reported.
Cheroitich told the AP that she had refused to emerge from her hiding place despite some of her classmates doing so at the demands of the gunmen before being killed.
She said she spent two days praying and drinking body lotion because of her thirst and hunger.
The Christian teenager initially suspected her police rescuers were militants trying to trick her, but only emerged once one of her teachers appealed for her to come out of hiding. Kenyan authorities arrested three men on Saturday in connection to Thursday’s terror attack at Garissa University College, according to local reports.
 |
| Students evacuated from Moi University during a terrorist seige react as they gather together in Garissa on April 3, 2015. Carl De Souza / Getty Images |
Kenyan security officials have arrested two more people in connection to the Garissa University College attack, according to the BBC. Many have also begun to question the possibility of Kenya government having received advance warning of possibly attacks from al-Shabaab, though officials have yet to confirm or deny these accounts.
The Daily Nation reported that on March 25, the administration at the University of Nairobi “warned its students that it had received intelligence information that terrorists were planning an attack on a university and asked them to be vigilant.”
Kenyan law enforcement has located one more missing student who was hiding out in Garissa University College’s student housing.
One witness, who was injured, said the gunmen separated people by genders. She survived because covered herself in someone else’s blood and played dead.
Witness and victim Helen Titus, 21, who was shot in the wrist, told the Associated Press she smeared her classmate’s blood on her face and hair and didn’t move, hoping the assailants would think she was dead.
The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, said Titus, who wore a patient’s gown as she sat on a bench in the hospital yard.
“We just wondered whether to come out or not,” she said. Many students did, whereupon the gunmen started shooting men, saying they would not kill “ladies,” Titus said. But they also shot women and targeted Christians, said Titus, who is a Christian.
The gunmen also seemed to know the layout and terrain well, and targeted a lecture hall where Christians were in early morning prayer, she said.
“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Titus said.
The White House released a statement on the Garrisa University College shooting, calling the attacks “cowardly.”
 |
| Add caption |
The announcement continued, “The United States stands with the people of Kenya, who will not be intimidated by such cowardly attacks.”
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery announced 147 people died in the attack on Garissa University College. The operation against the four gunmen, he said, has ended.
 |
| Son Of Kenyan Government Official Believed To Be One Of The Perpetrators Of University Massacre |
He added that the gunmen wore explosive devices filled with shrapnel.
Kenyan officials say that 518 students have now been accounted for, many of whom have been secured in a military compound near campus.
The names of the four gunmen who led the attack are not yet known, and Nkaissery did not officially confirm their affiliation with al-Shabaab.
“I want to assure Kenyans that although this was a very unfortunate incident, your government has you,” he said. “You need to know that your government is there to take care of your security.”
The National Disaster Operation Center in Kenya announced an increase in the number of Garissa University students who have been rescued from the attack, up more than 300 from earlier today.
Inspector General Joseph Boinnet has also imposed a 12-hour curfew in selected regions, beginning this evening and ending April 16.
 |
| Son Of Kenyan Government Official Believed To Be One Of The Perpetrators Of University Massacre |
The Ministry of Interior for Kenya has announced that two terrorists have been “neutralised” in the Garissa University shootings.
He later clarified that “neutralised” is “security speak for killed.” African Union Mission to Somalia Chief Dr. Maman Sidikou told BBC Africa, “Frankly, I’m a little bit shaken” because of the “targets they went after.”
The Zimbabwe Mail
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