On 2 April 2015, four gunmen belonging to Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based affiliate of al-Qaeda, began shooting on the campus of Garissa University College, the only major institution of higher learning in north-eastern Kenya. By the time Kenyan special forces ended the 15-hour siege, the militants had killed 148 students, most of them Christians, and injured more than 79. This particularly deadly assault four years ago attracted considerable media attention – and rightly so. Yet what is arguably Al-Shabaab’s most insidious attack on peace and security in Kenya continues to this day, beneath the media’s radar, in less spectacular forms.
Since 2015, Al-Shabaab has conducted over one hundred small-scale assaults in the north east, killing dozens of soldiers and police, mostly with roadside bombs.… Seguir leyendo »
A few nights ago I had a nightmare – my family and I were living on the seventh floor of an apartment building in a US city that I could not name. It was a hot summer night. Through our open windows we heard shouts of: “Go back to where you come from!” This was followed by a commotion, and then gunshots and then death grunts. My daughter was standing by the window looking outside – I crawled to her yelling at her to get on her stomach – and then I woke up relieved.
And then I read about the attack in Nairobi at the Dusit hotel in which at least 14 people were killed.… Seguir leyendo »
On Tuesday afternoon, terrorists stormed DusitD2, an upscale hotel and office complex in the heart of Nairobi. Within an hour, security forces had cordoned off the area, evacuated nearby buildings and launched an operation to confront the attackers and rescue people.
Given the security forces’ performance during previous attacks, this was a huge improvement. Five years ago, during a terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall, it was a different story. As described in a reconstruction by Tristan McConnell, by the time security agencies organized a response, “most of those who would escape had already escaped; most of those who would be wounded had already been struck; and most of those who would die were already dead”.… Seguir leyendo »
The merciless killing of more than 140 innocent students at Kenya’s Garissa University College last month by al-Shabab terrorists requires a serious government response — both from Kenya and the United States. Unfortunately, my government has decided to double down on a long-standing counterterrorism strategy that includes human rights abuses and the indiscriminate targeting of the country’s Muslims. This is guaranteed to make the situation worse, not better. As Kenya’s loyal partner, the United States must persuade Nairobi to drop this unsound strategy.
The Kenyan government is cracking down on those who have sought to engage in counter-radicalization efforts simply because they have dared to question its tactics.… Seguir leyendo »
The recent attack at Garissa University in North Eastern Kenya by Al Shabaab came as a surprise to many Kenyans and the world. Launched at the crack of dawn on Thursday April 2nd in Garissa, the attack lasted more than 6 hours and in its wake claimed the lives of 147 students, faculty and security personnel who were deployed in the counter offensive. While the Kenyan authorities concentrated their efforts in evacuating the injured, and there was improved inter agency cooperation between the various arms of the security services, more anger, helplessness and a palpable sense of disillusionment swept across the country.… Seguir leyendo »
Kenya is reeling from the shock of the massacre, early on Thursday, of 147 people in an attack by Somali militants on a college. At least four Shabab gunmen stormed Garissa University College, about 200 miles northeast of the capital, Nairobi, before dawn. They took students hostage and continued their assault until late in the evening, when Kenyan security forces ended the siege.
A Kenyan worker for an international aid agency, Reuben Nyaora, told Agence France-Presse: “I have seen many things, but nothing like that. There were bodies everywhere in execution lines, we saw people whose heads had been blown off, bullet wounds everywhere, it was a grisly mess.”… Seguir leyendo »
At ceremonies here to mark the first anniversary of the shooting rampage at the Westgate Mall by four Al Shabab gunmen that left 67 people dead, Sgt. Godfrey Emojong offered a remarkable tale of survival. He was one of the first policemen to arrive at the scene that Sept. 21, one of the lightly armed officers who believed they were responding to a robbery.
But the sight of the dead bodies piling up told a different story. Minutes later, as he was helping to move people out of the line of fire, Sergeant Emojong was hit, downed with 15 bullet wounds.… Seguir leyendo »
For much of the past half century, Kenya has cultivated an image as a peaceful oasis in a region dogged by violence and unrest. “Kenya, hakuna matata” (“No worries in Kenya”) is the unofficial motto on T-shirts peddled to the thousands of tourists who flock the East African country’s sandy beaches and safari parks every year.
But the image has frayed. The frightening brutality of the Shabab terrorists who killed 67 shoppers during the four-day siege of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi last September shocked the nation. Then, in another brutal rampage, on the night of June 15, dozens of attackers swept into Mpeketoni, a town near the tourist resort of Lamu Island, and mowed down 48 people, many of them dragged from a hotel where they had been watching a World Cup soccer match.… Seguir leyendo »
Terrorism is a global reality, and for me as a Kenyan, this struck close to home in September with the siege of the Westgate mall. Yet in many ways, growing up in Nairobi I was always in the midst of terror. As a boy living in extreme poverty in Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums, I learned early on that I was disposable, that human life is not equally valued. Life expectancy in Kibera is estimated at 30 years, compared with 64 in the rest of Kenya and 70 worldwide. In Kibera, people are desensitized to death. Living is understood to be the exception.… Seguir leyendo »
L'attentat revendiqué par les islamistes radicaux chabab au centre commercial de Westgate à Nairobi soulève bien des questions sur le déroulement de l'attaque et les capacités des Chabab à répéter une telle opération, au Kenya ou dans les autres pays de la sous-région. Il interroge aussi sur la violence extrême qui s'y est déployée et dont on ne mesure pas, pour l'instant, toute l'étendue. S'il est encore trop tôt pour mener une analyse de grande envergure, il est temps de s'arrêter sur l'impact d'un tel événement sur la société et la vie politique kényanes.
Le Kenya est longtemps resté à l'écart du conflit somalien et a même profité de certaines des retombées économiques de cette guerre grise, dont les revenus de la piraterie.… Seguir leyendo »
I was watching the 1 o’clock news at home on Saturday when the Westgate mall story broke. Young, casually dressed men — carrying very sophisticated weapons — had opened fire on shoppers in Nairobi’s luxury mall, killing dozens, and taking an unknown number hostage.
Westgate is 10 minutes’ drive in clear traffic from where I live. I listened hard for gunshots. Like most Kenyans, my first instinct was to jump on a bus and go and see for myself — a bad habit we have often been warned against. Instead I stayed glued to the screen, watching CCTV footage — a man grimacing and holding his side, his AK-47 beside him, another taking aim from behind a pillar.… Seguir leyendo »
At a burger restaurant, the body of a man and woman lie in a final embrace. As Kenyan soldiers launch their assault, pop music is still playing from loudspeakers.
The grisly consequences of an attack by al-Shabaab on Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre are still unfolding. As individual families mourn, Kenya is once again counting the cost of its point position as a regional bulwark against militant Islam. The country has been here before: in 1998 al-Qaida bombed the US embassy in the Kenyan capital; and in 2002 a terror attack against an Israeli-owned passenger aircraft and hotel took place in the coastal city of Mombasa.… Seguir leyendo »
There is a dreadful symmetry to the terrorist atrocity in Kenya. The outrage in Westgate shopping centre shows not only the enduring ability of al-Qaeda’s brethren to kill and maim in the teeth of the biggest counter‑terrorism campaign in history, it reminds us that Nairobi was the place where Osama bin Laden’s network first demonstrated its lethal potency.
Almost exactly 15 years ago, a truck bomb exploded two miles from the site of the Westgate mall. The heavily fortified US embassy was the nominal target, but a vulnerable nearby tower block bore the brunt of the blast. For a terrible instant, the sky above the crowded streets of central Nairobi rained shards of jagged glass, blinding scores of bystanders.… Seguir leyendo »
Helicopters hovered overhead. Ambulances raced through crowded streets to hospitals around the city. As late as Sunday evening, more than 24 hours after the initial attack, bursts of gunfire echoed through the mall in central Nairobi where Somali terrorists killed 59 people and hold about 30 hostages. Their demand: that Kenya withdraw the forces it deployed to Somalia two years ago as part of an international effort to drive Islamist extremists known as Al Shabab out of Mogadishu and other major cities, and return the country to government rule and a semblance of normal life.
That demand was rejected, out of hand, at a press conference on Sunday by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who said he himself had lost loved ones in the heinous attack.… Seguir leyendo »
Among the raft of al-Qaeda groups that sprung up round the world after 9/11, the Somali branch of the franchise was not one of the more promising start-ups. A direct product of life in the most lawless corner of the planet, al-Shabaab’s followers were considered too violent and quarrelsome even to work with each other, never mind pose a threat to the rest of the world. For all their videos declaring themselves “at Bin Laden’s service”, the joke among Western intelligence agencies was that even al-Qaeda’s high command, like everyone else, would struggle to get anything organised in somewhere as chaotic as Somalia.… Seguir leyendo »
Tema: Al-Qaeda estableció una célula en Kenia a inicios de los 90. Al-Shabab se formó posteriormente en Somalia. Pero la relación entre ambas es muy estrecha, constituyendo una amenaza terrorista para la región del Este de África y más allá.
Resumen: El Este de África es desde el inicio de la década de los 90 un escenario particularmente significativo del terrorismo yihadista, aunque sea en estos momentos cuando adquiera una especial relevancia. Al-Qaeda estableció una célula en Kenia al poco de dar comienzo aquella década y desde entonces no ha dejado de constituir una amenaza para la estabilidad del país y su economía nacional.… Seguir leyendo »
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