Tagged: Kenya
Grisly ritual linked to girls dropping out : Woman challenges tradition, brings change to her Kenyan village
Enoosaen, Kenya (CNN) — When she was 14 years old, Kakenya Ntaiya entered the cow pen behind her home with an elderly woman carrying a rusty knife.
As a crowd from her Maasai village looked on, Ntaiya sat down, lifted her skirt and opened her legs. The woman grabbed Ntaiya’s most intimate body parts and, in just moments, cut them out.
“It (was) really painful. I fainted,” recalled Ntaiya, now 34. “You’re not supposed to cry.”
For generations, this ceremony was a rite of passage for every Maasai girl, some as young as 10; soon afterward, they would marry and drop out of school.
About 140 million girls and women worldwide have been affected by female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision. The procedure is commonly based on religious and cultural beliefs, including efforts to prevent premarital sex and marital infidelity.
While female circumcision and child marriage are now illegal in Kenya — new laws banning genital mutilation have contributed to a decline in the practice — officials acknowledge that they still go on, especially in rural tribal areas. Despite free primary education being mandated 10 years ago by the Kenyan government, educating girls is still not a priority for the Maasai culture. According to the Kenyan government, only 11% of Maasai girls in Kenya finish primary school.
“A student recites a coral verse on female genital mutilation during the world social forum in Kenya.”
“It means the end of their dreams of whatever they want to become in life,” Ntaiya said.
But when Ntaiya endured the painful ritual in 1993, she had a plan. She negotiated a deal with her father, threatening to run away unless he promised she could finish high school after the ceremony.
More than 150 Maasai girls are enrolled at the Kakenya Center for Excellence in Enoosaen, Kenya.
“I really liked going to school,” she said. “I knew that once I went through the cutting, I was going to be married off. And my dream of becoming a teacher was going to end.”
Dreams like Ntaiya’s weren’t the norm in Enoosaen, a small village in western Kenya. Engaged at age 5, Ntaiya spent her childhood learning the skills she would need to be a good Maasai wife. But her mother encouraged her children to strive for a better life, and Ntaiya heeded her advice, postponing the coming-of-age ritual as long as she could. When her father finally insisted, she took her stand.
Ntaiya’s bold move paid off. She excelled in high school and earned a college scholarship in the United States. Her community held a fundraiser to raise money for her airfare, and in exchange, she promised to return and help the village.
Over the next decade, Ntaiya would earn her degree, a job at the United Nations and eventually a doctorate in education. But she never forgot the vow she made to village elders.
In 2009, she opened the first primary school for girls in her village, the Kakenya Center for Excellence. Today, Ntaiya is helping more than 150 girls receive the education and opportunities that she had to sacrifice so much to attain.
The Kakenya Center for Excellence started as a traditional day school, but now the students, who range from fourth to eighth grade, live at the school. This spares the girls from having to walk miles back and forth, which puts them at risk of being sexually assaulted, a common problem in rural African communities. It also ensures the girls don’t spend all their free time doing household chores.
“Now, they can focus on their studies — and on being kids,” Ntaiya said. “It’s the only way you can give a girl child a chance to excel.”
Students receive three meals a day as well as uniforms, books and tutoring. There are also extracurricular activities such as student council, debate and soccer. Class sizes are small — many schools in Kenya are extremely overcrowded — and the girls have more chances to participate. With these opportunities and the individual attention they receive, the girls are inspired to start dreaming big.
“They want to become doctors, pilots, lawyers,” Ntaiya said. “It’s exciting to see that.”
Just 4 years old, the school already ranks among the top in its district.
“Fathers are now saying, ‘My daughter could do better than my son,’ ” Ntaiya said.
As a public school, the Kakenya Center for Excellence receives some financial support from the Kenyan government. But the majority of the school’s expenses are paid for by Ntaiya’s U.S.-based nonprofit. While families are asked to contribute to cover the cost of the girls’ meals, an expense that can be paid in maize or beans, Ntaiya covers the costs of any students who cannot pay.
Each year, more than 100 girls apply for approximately 30 spots available in each new class. Parents who enroll their daughters must agree that they will not be subjected to genital mutilation or early marriage.
Ntaiya at the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a school she founded in a rural Maasai village in Kenya, in 2011. Photograph by Philip Andrews, National Geographic
Many families are willing to accept Ntaiya’s terms, and that’s the kind of change she was hoping to inspire. It took her years to drum up support for the project, but eventually she persuaded the village elders to donate land for the school.
“It’s still quite challenging to push for change. Men are in charge of everything,” she said. “But nothing good comes on a silver plate. You have to fight hard.”
Chief John Naleke, a village elder, can testify firsthand to Ntaiya’s powers of persuasion. As recently as 2006, he claimed there was no need for girls to be educated. But she managed to win him over; he’s now an important partner in her efforts.
Naleke said Ntaiya’s accomplishments and spirit have made her a role model, noting that villagers also respect the fact that she didn’t forget her promise.
“We have several sons who have gone to the United States for school. Kakenya is the only one that I can think of that has come back to help us,” Naleke said. “What she tells us, it touches us. … She brought a school and a light and is trying to change old customs to help girls get a new, better life.”
In 2011, Ntaiya moved to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, with her husband and two young sons. She spends about half her time in Enoosaen, where she loves to visit with the girls and see them evolve.
“When they start, they are so timid,” she said. “(Now) the confidence they have, it’s just beyond words. It’s the most beautiful thing.”
Her nonprofit also runs health and leadership camps that are open to all sixth-grade girls in the village and teach them about female circumcision, child marriage, teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.
“We tell them about every right that they have, and we teach them how to speak up,” Ntaiya said. “It’s about empowering the girls.”
In the coming years, Ntaiya plans to expand her school to include lower grades. She also wants to provide tutoring for the students from her first class when they head to high school next year, and she wants to eventually open a career center for them. She hopes that one day the school will serve as a model for girls’ education throughout Africa.
Ultimately, Ntaiya wants girls to have the opportunity to go as far as their abilities will take them.
“I came back so girls don’t have to negotiate like I did to achieve their dreams,” she said. “That’s why I wake up every morning.”
Want to get involved? Check out the Kakenya Center for Excellence website at www.kakenyasdream.org and see how to help.
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Exclusive: Inside an al-Shabaab training camp
Among the most feared of al-Qaeda’s affiliates, al-Shabaab was behind the Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya. Jamal Osman attended one of its training camps in the Somali bush.
‘Stop fighting us’
The men comprise young Muslims from all over the world: Arabs, Kenyans and even, I was told, some from Britain. They chanted in several languages, but I wasn’t allowed to speak to them. The group was one of two fully armed battalions I saw during my stay. They are determined men who want to crush the western-backed Somali government in Mogadishu. The weak government is propped up by African Union troops, including Kenyan forces who invaded southern Somalia two years ago. That is why al-Shabaab regard the Westgate attack as revenge.
We have said to Kenya many times: stay away from us. They refused. So we decided to spill blood to send the message.Sheikh Ali Dhere
Sheikh Ali Dhere, the public face of the group, told me: “We have said to Kenya many times: stay away from us, leave our land, our people and stop fighting us. We warned them again and again. They refused all of that. So we decided to spill blood to send the message. “Their women are not better than ours. Their sons are not better than ours. Their children are not better than ours. When they kill our people we kill theirs.” Some of the new soldiers at the graduation ceremony showed off their gymnastic skills to impress Sheik Ali Dhere.
Read more: hero's life awaits al-Shabaab's Westgate suspects
Suicide waiting list
Highly organised, these latest additions will soon decide which unit within al-Shabaab to join. They can remain regular fighters, become bomb-makers or work for the Amniyat, al-Shabaab’s security network. But the most popular unit is the Istishhadyin unit, the suicide brigade. And believe it or not, there’s a long waiting list of several years. With months of training, only the best recruits will be accepted. Sheikh Ali Dhere had a message for those wanting to join. “When we fight and are martyred, we hope to be with God in paradise. What are the infidels hoping for? Nothing.”
Alternative government
Al-Shabaab has been designated as a terrorist organisation by several western nations. And after losing control of four major cities, the Islamists were thought to have been defeated. But they still control large parts of the country and see themselves as an alternative government. I visited Bulo Burte, a key strategic crossing point on the Shabelle river. It’s an al-Shabaab stronghold.
When we fight and are martyred, we hope to be with God in paradise. What are the infidels hoping for? Nothing.Sheikh Ali Dhere
It also happens to be the town where one of the Westgate attackers came from. The number and identities of the Westgate attackers still remains a mystery. Kenyans claim they were only four. But locals in the al-Shabaab areas suggest there were more and some are even believed to have returned to Somalia. The spokesman said Westagte was “something that happened at the heart of their country, and they still don’t know whether the men have escaped or not and how many they were. That shows their weakness.”
‘Victory is close’
Unlike other parts of southern and central Somalia, there’s peace under al-Shabaab’s strict sharia law. Women do go to school and are allowed to run their own businesses. I followed the Hizbat, the al-Shabaab police, on their beat. The first stop was a restaurant, where they told the female owner to remove the rubbish from outside. They then made their way to the local hospital, where they checked the pharmacy and the cleanliness of the rooms. They seem satisfied. Our final stop was a mini supermarket where they checked product expiry dates. But as soon as they heard the call to prayer, everything stopped. People headed to the mosque for midday prayer, whether they liked it or not. The al-Shabaab police made sure that everyone went to the mosque. Passing vehicles are pulled over. The mosque quickly fills up, with some having to pray outside in the heat. It’s a good opportunity for Sheikh Ali Dhere – this time in civilian clothes – to drum up more support. “It’s you who are meant to deal with the infidels,” he tells the congregation. “It’s you who should defend Islam. God willing, we’ll be victorious. Victory is close. The infidels haven’t got much left. They are in the eleventh hour.” source: 4 NEWS
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Europe: Islamic Terror Starts Here *Videos*
It’s no secret that most terrorist attacks perpetrated by those we call “Islamic terrorists” occurred not in Europe or the USA– but in Iraq, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria and other non-Western countries. The murders of Lee Rigby or the 52 people killed in London in 2005 are, of course, heinous crimes. But compared to hundreds that die in Iraq daily, a hundred or so European victims of Islamic terrorist attacks in the last 10 years look very moderate. European political leaders, modestly lowering their eyes, hint that this is the result of their wise policy and of the highest efficiency of the police- that is directed and guided by them. The true reason, however, is different. Islamic terrorist leaders simply spare Europe. It is not dangerous for them. Moreover, Europe today is a true paradise for Islamic terrorist leaders, who in total comfort and safety are able to plan, organize and finance terrorist attacks all over the world from the European capital cities.
Before the 70s there was not any “Islamic terrorism.” In all those countries we today call “Islamic,” the governments, understanding perfectly well the danger, were mercilessly crushing all these “Muslim brotherhoods” and any other similar tactics. Muslim groups were illegal, and the ruling governments in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Saudi Arabia sent their members to jail without a second thought. Incidentally, the jails in these countries are not like in Norway, Sweden or Great Britain where they more closely resemble 4-star hotels than prisons.
Furthermore, Europe, due to the restrictive immigration policies and moderately strict laws, was closed to them. Islamic terrorism had no future and no perspectives. All that changed in the 70s when Europe became catastrophically humanistic and liberal- and opened its doors to a mass immigration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The leaders of the Islamic terrorist organizations very soon discovered that to organize terrorist attacks and to launder money from drug and human trafficking is much safer from Amsterdam, London and Paris than from Cairo, Damascus and Riyadh: lawyers, human rights activists, lax laws…
And the efficiency is much higher.
The main reasons for the growth of Islamic terrorism in the world and the increase in its efficiency are:
• lax immigration policies that have allowed known Islamic radicals to settle and remain in Europe,
• the radicalization of significant segments of the continent’s burgeoning Muslim population, and
• the European law enforcement agencies’ inability to effectively dismantle terrorist networks, due to poor attention to the problem and/or the lack of proper legal tools.
Over 1000 European jihadists have joined the fight in Syria. Many will return home to plan terror attacks. (Photo Source: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/)
Given these premises, it should come as no surprise that almost every single attack carried out or attempted by different Islamic groups throughout the world has some link to Europe, even prior to 9/11. A Dublin-based charity provided material support to some of the terrorists who attacked the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Part of the planning for the thwarted Millennium Bombing that was supposed to target the Los Angeles International Airport was conceived in London. False documents provided by a cell operating between Belgium and France allowed two Al Qaeda operatives to portray themselves as journalists and assassinate Ahmed Shah Massoud, the commander of the Afghan Northern Alliance, just two days before 9/11. And, as we well know, the attacks of 9/11 were partially planned in Hamburg, Germany, where three of the four pilots of the hijacked planes had lived and met, and from where they received extensive financial and logistical support until the day of the attacks.
After 9/11, as the Al Qaeda network became less dependent on its leadership in Afghanistan and more decentralized, the cells operating in Europe gained even additional importance. Most of the planning for the April 2002 bombing of a synagogue in the Tunisian resort town of Djerba that killed 21 mostly European tourists was done in Germany and France. According to Moroccan authorities, the funds for the May 2003 Casablanca Bombings came from Moroccan cells operating between Spain, France, Italy and Belgium. And cells operating in Europe have also directly targeted the Old Continent. Only after 9/11, attacks have been either planned or executed in Madrid, Paris, London (in at least 4 different circumstances), Milan, Berlin, Porto and Amsterdam.
However, while investigations in all these cases revealed that different cells operating throughout Europe were involved in the planning of the operation, the role of these cells extends beyond the simple planning or execution of attacks. European-based Islamists raise or launder money, supply false documents and weapons and recruit new operatives for a global network that spans from the United States to the Far East. Within the last decade, their role has become essential to the mechanics of the network. It is, therefore, not far-fetched to speak of Europe as “a new Afghanistan,” a place that Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups have chosen as its headquarters to direct operations- with one serious difference: Europe is much safer.
In this situation, large-scale Islamic terrorist attacks against Europe would be counter-productive. This, and not some fantastic efficiency of the Western anti-terrorist groups or even more fantastic wisdom of Western politicians, is the reason for the small number of the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Islamic groups against Europeans on European soil.
Of course, some occasional terrorist strike here and there is good as a reminder: we are here, we can kill you any moment, fear us! But –no more than that, because a large-scale attack would result in a large-scale police response, a harsher immigration policy, more expulsions… And occasional terrorist strikes let the terrorists achieve their goal of keeping the Western population in fear- but without any major reprisals. Moreover: this small number of attacks let the Western politicians go on brainwashing the population, telling it fairy tales about some mysterious “true Islam” that has nothing in common with the “radical Islam” of the terrorists and is absolutely peaceful.
source: Cherson and Molschky / By: Y.K. Cherson
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Christian Shot Dead in Kenya for ‘Spreading Wrong Religion’
Two men armed with pistols shot Abdikhani Hassan seven times as he approached his home after closing his pharmacy in Kharkinley District on Oct. 20, his Muslim neighbor told a Morning Star News source. Hassan is survived by his wife, who is pregnant, and five children ranging in age from 3 to 12.
Before killing Hassan, one of the assailants told the neighbor, “We have information that Hassan is spreading wrong religion to our people, and we are looking for him,” the neighbor said.
“I got so frightened as the two young men left,” said the neighbor, whose identity is withheld for security reasons.
The unidentified attackers did not rob Hassan of anything.
Islamic extremists from the Al Shabaab rebel group have killed several Christians in the past few years, and although the group no longer controls Mogadishu, a few rebels hiding their militant identity remain in the capital, a source said.
“The men who murdered Abdikhani are suspected to be Al Shabaab militia, and the government is carrying out an investigation looking for the two killers,” he said.
Al Shabaab, the Somali cell of Al Qaeda, has vowed to rid Somalia of its Christians, who meet secretly in the country where apostasy, or leaving Islam, is punishable by death. The group is suspected of killing Fatuma Isak Elmi, 35, on Sept. 1 inside her home in Beledweyne, Hiran Province in south-central Somalia (see Morning Star News, Sept. 9). Her husband had received a threatening note that morning believed to be from the Islamic extremist group and was away at the time of the murder.
Al Shabaab’s attack on the upscale Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya on Sept. 21 killed at least 67 people, with dozens still unaccounted for (see Morning Star News, Sept. 22).
On April 13, Al Shabaab militants shot Fartun Omar to death in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Beledweyne (see Morning Star News, April 22). Omar was the widow of Mursal Isse Siad, killed for his faith on Dec. 8, 2012 in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu. He had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam (see Morning Star News, Dec. 14, 2012).
Siad and his wife, who converted to Christianity in 2000, had moved to Beledweyne from Doolow eight months before. The area was under government control and there was no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels, but the Islamic extremist insurgents were present in Buulodbarde, and Christians believed a few Al Shabaab rebels could have been hiding in Beledweyne.
On June 7 in Jamaame District in southern Somalia, insurgents from the group shot 28-year-old Hassan Hurshe to death after identifying him as a Christian, sources said (see Morning Star News, June 20). Al Shabaab members brought Hurshe to a public place in the town of Jilib and shot him in the head, they said.
On Feb. 18, suspected Islamic extremists shot Ahmed Ali Jimale, a 42-year-old father of four, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Kismayo (see Morning Star News, Feb. 28).
In the coastal city of Barawa on Nov. 16, 2012, Al Shabaab militants killed a Christian after accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, sources said (see Morning Star News, Nov. 17, 2012).
Mose drew suspicion when he returned to Barawa, in the Lower Shebelle Region, in December 2011 after spending time in Kenya, according to underground Christians in Somalia. Kenya’s population is nearly 83 percent Christian, according to Operation World, while Somalia’s is close to 100 percent Muslim.
source: CP World
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Taskforce hunts for missing burka terror suspect
Police have released images of Mr Mohammed before and after he vanished from the mosque on Friday
A taskforce has been assembled to try to locate and catch a terror suspect who escaped from his government minders by disguising himself in a burka.
Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, 27, who was subject to an order restricting his movements, left a London mosque on Friday with his face and body covered.
The Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, MI5 and the UK Border Agency are now joining forces to find him.
He is the second terror suspect under a so-called TPim order to go missing.
The terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPim) have come under intense scrutiny since the Briton, who is of Somali origin, absconded from the mosque in Acton, west London.
His disappearance has caused acute embarrassment to the home secretary, who introduced the measures.
Three escape options
Mr Mohamed is believed to have close links to al-Shabab, the Somali insurgent group that raided Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in September, resulting in 67 deaths, but officials say there was not enough evidence to bring a criminal case against him in court.
Within hours of Mr Mohamed’s disappearance, an alert to ports notice was issued.
Along with his photograph, it placed him on a Warnings Index Database.
Mr Mohamed’s photograph has been circulated to ports and borders
As UK Border Agency officers at Britain’s ports and airports are told to look out for the suspect, intelligence officers are working closely with the police to try to second-guess where he would be likely to go.
Assuming he is not planning to hand himself in, this is thought likely to come down to three broad choices.
First, it is thought he could lie low and stay in Britain.
Investigators are considering the probability that he will make contact with elements of the criminal underworld, although he may be wary of exploiting existing links.
To stay out of custody he will need a new, forged identity, but he still risks being recognised and having his whereabouts phoned in to the police by the public.
A second choice he has would be to flee Britain for East Africa.
If he can make it to Kenya there is a well-established secret pipeline used by al-Shabab associates to pass through the country on their way from Europe and the US to Somalia.
The Kenyan authorities may be able to apprehend him, but plenty of jihadist volunteers have used the porous Kenya-Somali border to slip through the net and join al-Shabab.
The UK government estimates there are still around 50 British jihadists training and fighting with al-Shabab in Somalia. That number is dwarfed by those heading to Syria to join al-Qaeda-linked groups there.
The third potential option under consideration is that Mr Mohamed could flee to Europe.
If he can assume a new identity then he may be able to assimilate himself into the Somali diaspora in a European country with a sizeable community, such as Norway.
But most Somalis do not want to be associated with al-Shabab and, with his picture so widely circulated, he could again be easily recognised.
Arrested if caught
The open judgement handed down by the High Court on his case last year said the security service assessed him as being linked to a group of six British nationals who received terrorist training from al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia in 2006.
The judgement says he also fought on the front line in Somalia in support of al-Shabab, and between 2008 and 2010 was “engaged in procuring weapons for use in furthering his terrorism-related activity”.
A Home Office spokesman confirmed that if the police do succeed in catching him, Mr Mohammed will be arrested, as breaching a TPim order is classed as a criminal offence.
The other Tpim absconder, named as Ibrahim Magag, escaped in a taxi on Boxing Day in 2012. He has never been caught.
source: BBC NEWS
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Former spy: Kenya mall attack ‘could have been prevented’
(CNN) — Western intelligence missed a chance to capture or kill the suspected terrorist thought to be behind the Nairobi mall massacre, according to a former informant for both the CIA and the Danish intelligence service.
Morten Storm, who worked as an informant for five years, had forged a close relationship with the man — a Kenyan called Ikrima — who has been responsible for planning attacks inside Kenya for Al-Shabaab.
Ikrima(L) and Morten Storm(R)
Storm, a Danish national, told CNN that in March 2012 the Danish intelligence agency PET had offered him one million Danish krone ($200,000) on behalf of the CIA if he could lead them to Ikrima, the target of an unsuccessful operation by US Navy SEALs last month. The SEALs raided an Al-Shabaab compound at Barawe on the Somali coast, but Ikrima escaped.
Storm’s told CNN it is possible he might have got wind of the plans had he still been working for Western intelligence. But his relationship with PET and the CIA ended in mid-2012 amid disagreement about a different mission in Yemen.
“I get really frustrated to know that Ikrima had been maybe involved in the Westgate terrorist attack. It frustrates me a lot because it could have been stopped and I’m sad I can’t be involved in this.”
The CIA refused to comment on Storm’s claims; a spokesperson for the PET told CNN: “We can’t confirm or deny ever knowing Morten Storm.”
Kenyan counter-terrorism sources have told CNN they believe Ikrima had a hand in the Westgate attack as well as a string of plots targeting Kenya in the last two years, including a plot to target Kenya’s parliament in late 2011.
Westgate Shopping Mall Attack,Kenya
Storm said he first put Ikrima on the radar screen of Western intelligence in 2008 when he met him in Nairobi for the first time. In the spring of 2009 Storm met Ikrima in Nairobi again. Abdelkadir Warsame, a senior Al-Shabaab operative, had sent Ikrima to meet Storm to pick up electronic equipment for one of Al-Shabaab’s leaders. What Ikrima did not know was that Storm was working for PET, MI6, and the CIA, and that tracking devices had been hidden in the equipment, which included a laptop.
The equipment, according to Storm’s Al-Shabaab handlers, was for Saleh al Nabhan, one of the senior planners of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. Several months later Nabhan was targeted and killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs operation. Storm’s Al-Shabaab contacts subsequently told him they believed Nabhan had been tracked through the electronic equipment but blamed a junior courier.
Two suicide bombers, one Somali and one Ugandan, carried out the twin bombings that killed 76 people in the Ugandan capital Kampala 2010
After Al-Shabaab carried out a twin suicide bombing attack in Kampala, Uganda in July 2010 Ikrima told Storm it was now difficult for him to travel to meet him in Nairobi. From then on the two kept in frequent touch through encrypted emails — which CNN has seen — providing Western intelligence with real-time information on his movements and plans.
In early 2010 Storm connected Ikrima to Anwar al Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who had by then begun overseeing al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s operations against the West. According to Storm the two then began communicating over encrypted emails. They eventually came up with a joint plan of action to attack the West: Ikrima would send Shabaab recruits, including Westerners, to Yemen for terrorist training, and they would then be sent back to Somalia or on to the West.
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam and Islamic militant. U.S. government officials said that he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.
“And as for going to hooks [Awlaki’s] place … then i was told by hook that they want to train brothers and then send them back or to the west,”Ikrima wrote to Storm in November 2010.
Storm believes Ikrima‘s connection to Awlaki — and his delivery of equipment secretly supplied by Western intelligence – enabled Ikrima to quickly climb Al-Shabaab’s hierarchy.
“He was one of the smartest ones I met in east Africa,” he told CNN.
Storm told CNN that Ikrima helped oversee an intelligence apparatus — “Amniyat” – Al-Shabaab set up in Kenya. “He’s the main link between Somalia and the Al Hijra group back here in Kenya,” one of Ikrima‘s former associates told CNN in Nairobi. Al Hijra is a militant outfit in Kenya closely associated with Al-Shabaab.
Storm said that Ikrima was at the center of a spiderweb connecting terrorist operatives in Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, and the West. He said he had emerged as the chief handler of foreign fighters, including Westerners joining Al-Shabaab, placing him in a unique opportunity to plot terrorist attacks in East Africa and Europe.
His intelligence, language skills and connections appear to have now made Ikrima invaluable to Al-Shabaab. Two former friends of Ikrima — including a former member of Al-Shabaab, told CNN he was now a strategist and planner for the group, rather than a fighter.
“He’s part of the intelligence team. He speaks five languages – Norwegian, Swahili, Arabic, Somali, and English – and that puts him in a front seat with Al-Shabaab,” one of his associates told CNN.
Storm and the two former associates have shed light on how a middle class Kenyan became one of the most wanted terrorists in east Africa.
Ikrima, now believed to be in his late twenties, was born in Mombasa into a middle class ethnic Somali family who also had blood links to the Al-Ansi tribe in Yemen, a connection which later helped Ikrima forge a relationship with AQAP.
The family moved to Nairobi when he was young where he excelled in his studies, especially in French and other languages. His friends remembered him as not particularly religious and fond of smoking marijuana.
He moved to Norway in 2004 apparently to seek out economic opportunities in Europe, taking advantage of the fact that his Somali ethnicity allowed him to apply for refugee status. He was granted temporary travel papers, but he never fit in, and started to become radicalized. A 2006 offensive by Ethiopian troops to rid Somalia of the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist militia that had taken control of much of the country, appears to have played a significant role.
Storm said Ikrima had told him he had joined the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia and experienced the invasion by Ethiopian troops first hand. He suspects the experience instilled in Ikrima a deep commitment to Jihad.
According to his friends when he returned to Norway he was told his application for asylum had been rejected, and he moved to London for several months. In 2008 Ikrima left Europe for good and returned to east Africa.
Western counter-terorrism officials fear his reputation in Jihadist circles worldwide will be bolstered by his escape from the U.S. operation, and he may be emboldened to plot new attacks.
” Al-Shabaab will protect him to the end. They will give him bodyguards around the clock they will make sure he is safe where ever he goes in Somalia,” one of the former associates of Ikrima told CNN.
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- U.S. target in Somalia: An inside story on an Al-Shabaab commander (cnn.com)
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- Norwegian suspected in mall attack (cnn.com)
- Kenyan military attacks Al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia (sudantribune.com)
- Kenyan warplanes bomb al Shabaab targets (worldbulletin.net)
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Kenya’s women fight for justice as rapists are sentenced to cut the grass
The teenager who survived the attack (October 2013)
More than a million people have signed an online petition demanding justice after three men accused of brutally gang-raping a girl in Kenya were ordered to cut grass as punishment.
The policemen who ordered the punishment should be disciplined for failing to investigate rape charges, the petition said.
The 16-year old was gang-raped and dumped in a pit latrine in Busia.
When her case came to light earlier this month, it caused national outrage.
People walk past a poster bearing a message against rape on a street of Nairobi, Kenya.
The director of public prosecutions has ordered the national police to investigate why the local force, known as administration police, did not fully investigate the alleged rape, and instead ordered the suspects to cut grass.
The alleged rapists are reported to have gone into hiding.
The petition – published by online campaign group Avaaz – called on Kenya’s police chief David Kimaiyo to “deliver justice” for the girl, named Liz.
The 16-year-old, nicknamed Liz, was walking home from her grandfather’s funeral in Busia when she was attacked by six men and then buried in a 20-foot latrine. Neighbors near the area heard cries for help hours later and pulled her out of the ditch, finding her bloody and unconscious.
Her back was broken during the attacks and she now uses a wheelchair, reported the local Daily Nation newspaper, which first reported the story and led a campaign to raise funds to cover her medical costs.
Her alleged attackers should be immediately arrested and prosecuted and disciplinary action should be instituted against police officers who “dismally failed to handle her case”, the petition said.
“By holding these police officers to account you will send a strong message to police everywhere that rape is not a misdemeanour, it is a serious crime, and if police do not uphold the law they will be held to account,” it added.
“We call on you to ensure Liz’s case is a turning point to end the war on girls.”
source:BBC NEWS
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- Rape suspects ordered to mow grass (edition.cnn.com)
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Navy SEALs capture terror suspect linked to Kenya mall massacre in daring raid on Somalia
- American officials have announced the capture of an unidentified official of the al Shabab terrorist organization
- The terrorist was seized in an early morning raid at the beachfront house in Baraawe, Somalia where al Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was last known to be living
- Al Shabab confirmed the attack, saying one of their fighters had been killed but that they had pushed back the SEALs
- American officials would not say whether the official had been taken dead or alive
A Navy SEAL team has launched a daring raid on Somalia and captured a top terror leader linked to last month’s Kenya mall attack.
Special Forces troops from the elite unit attacked the town of Baraawe and seized one as yet unidentified enemy fighter.
The town of Baraawe was the last known home of Ahmed Abdi Godane . He is the leader of al Shabab, the terror group that claimed responsibility for the attack on a mall in Nairobi that killed 69 people between September 21 and 24.
Captured: U.S. officials announced the capture of a yet-to-be-identified senior member of the al Shabab militant group in Somalia this morning. The group’s leader Ahmed Abi Godane, above, was last known to be living at the compound raided
American officials and sources representing al Shabab both confirmed the fight.
‘The Baraawe raid was planned a week and a half ago,’ an anonymous American security official told the New York Times. ‘It was prompted by the Westgate attack.’
The SEALs attacked a beachfront house where high-level members of al Shabab were known to stay.
A Somalian intelligence official said the targets of the raid were several ‘high-profile’ foreigners staying in the house.
They attacked before dawn and used silencers, but it soon turned into a loud firefight as the Somali combatants engaged.
A witness said that 12 Shabab fighters were staying there at the time of the assault before heading to a mission abroad. The fight last 10 to 15 minutes.
Uncertain: American officials would not say whether the al Shabab official was apprehended dead or alive. Above, a stock image of Navy SEALs
Uncertain: American officials would not say whether the al Shabab official was apprehended dead or alive. Above, a stock image of Navy SEALs
After the fight, an al Shabab spokesman said it was British and Turkish forces who raided the home, but both countries quickly denied their involvement.
They added that one of their fighters had been killed in the raid but that they were able to beat back the soldiers.
‘Westerners in boats attacked our base at Baraawe beach and one was martyred from our side,” an al-Shabaab spokesman told Reuters. ‘No planes or helicopters took part in the fight. The attackers left weapons, medicine and stains of blood, we chased them.’
The SEAL team attacked a beachfront house in the coastal town of Baraawe, which was the last known home of the leader of al Shabab
The SEAL team attacked a beachfront house in the coastal town of Baraawe, which was the last known home of the leader of al Shabab
The American sources would not say whether the al Shabab senior official apprehended was taken dead or alive.
This was the first publicly-announced raid by U.S. special ops in Somalia since the rescue of twocharity workers from the country in January 2012, after they had been kidnapped by Somali pirates and held hostage for three months.
More than 60 people were killed in the dangerous attack last week at the Westgate mall in Nairobi Kenya.
The terrorists stormed the Westgate Mall and sprayed shoppers with bullets. Witnesses said the attackers told all Muslims to leave as they were only after non-Muslims.
Those shoppers who tried to leave were asked by the terrorists to name the Prophet Mohammed’s mother. If they failed to give her correct name of Amina they were shot dead, said one eye witness.
After Muslim shoppers had left the mall, the terrorists reportedly threw grenades and fired AK-47s.
The attack continued for three days since the perpetrators holed up and defended themselves inside the mall.
Kenyan attack: Surveillance footage from the Westgate Mall shows one of the terrorists involved in the attack that killed 60 shoppers last month
Responsible: Somalian-based terrorist organization al Shabab took credit for the attack while it was going on
Source : Mail Online
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Executed as she talked to her mother on the phone: Fate of 16-year-old victim of Kenyan mall massacre as it emerges terrorists shot some children five times
- Gunmen targeted 30 children who were taking part in a cooking event
- As many as 30 hostages were taken by the Al Shabaab terrorists
- Sources said militants hurled a severed hand and head from a balcony
- The Kenyan military didn’t believe the hostages would survive their ordeal
Children as young as five were shot up to five times by the terrorists that carried out the Westgate mall massacre, it has emerged.
The attack, carried out last week by gunmen from Somalia-based terrorist group Al Shabaab, left 67 people dead, including six Britons.
New accounts of the extremists’ merciless assault reveal for the first time the fate of some of the 30 children who attended a cooking event at the mall. Some of them were as young as 12.
Response team: A grab from a video made available on Saturday September 28 showing an armed undercover police officer guarding a stairwell approaching the scene of the terror attack
Brave: An armed undercover police officer, left, and head of Westgate security (no name available), right, approach the terrorists
Rescued: Undercover police officers and police with guns asking shoppers caught up in the incident to leave with their hands up as they crouch on the ground for cover
Escape: A young girl runs from a store in Westgate, beckoned on by officials and shoppers
One girl at the event, 16-year-old Nehal Vekariya, was shot through the eye, according to The Sunday Times.
The paper reports her father’s final phone conversation with her.
He said: ‘She said “I’m okay, I’m with friends, call Mummy fast and tell her I’m okay”.’
When her mother called her she heard yelling and then gunshots, then the line went dead. She had been cut down at close range.
The paper also reports that witnesses describe children as young as five being hit up to five times by the terrorists, as they roamed the mall looking for victims.
A soldier carries a child to safety as armed police hunt the gunmen who went on a brutal shooting spree at Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi on September 21
Memorial: A soldier from the Kenya Defence Forces salutes while another pays his respects as they and other Kenyans came to light candles, sing and pray,to mark one week since the terrorist attack
Solemn: A Kenyan girl lights a candle to pay her respects to those killed in the Westgate mall massacre
Mitul Shah, 38, meanwhile, a London-born father of one caught up in the siege, was hailed a ‘hero and a star’ for reportedly offering hicmself as a hostage to allow children to escape from militants.
According to The Sunday Times, one of the gunmen told victims: ‘You didn’t spare our women and children. Why should we spare yours?’
Firefighters, police and soldiers were faced with horrific scenes when they entered the mall.
One firefighter told the paper how he was sent in to put out a fire in the CCTV control room, started by rocket-propelled grenades that were fired by soldiers.
He heard screaming from a balcony, then gunshots, then saw blood dripping from above. Some security men were crying, he said. Then a severed hand and a head wrapped in cloth landed on the floor next to them.
A Western security official told The Sunday Times: ‘They were saying to the troops, “If you come any closer we will execute a hostage”.’
The extremists had piled dead bodies up against the doors to hinder their progress.
It’s understood from intelligence sources that the Kenyan military deliberately caved in the top floor car park to kill them, on the assumption that if the hostages weren’t already dead, they soon would be.
Al Shabaab was making proclamations on social media that they weren’t willing to negotiate.
As many as 30 hostages were taken by the terrorists according to the British High Commission, with many of them still unaccounted for.
A British SAS unit was on standby to help the Kenyan military, but they weren’t called in.
Eight suspects are being held over the attack according to Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said. Three others who had been detained were released. At least five attackers also were killed.
Destroyed: Vehicles are seen in the rubble in the destruction at the Westgate Shopping Centre
However, there are fears that some of the extremists, including suspected British terrorists Samantha Lewthwaite, may be on the loose, having escaped through the city’s drainage system.
A unnamed source told The Sun on Sunday: ‘It may have been a way out for some of the terrorists. They could have escaped like sewer rats.’
On Saturday leaked intelligence briefings revealed that the Kenyan government had been warned some months ago Al Shabaab was planning an attack in Nairobi between September 13 and 21.
One report named suspected terrorists in Nairobi who were ‘planning to mount suicide attacks on an undisclosed date, targeting Westgate Mall’ and a cathedral.
Mutea Iringo, principal secretary in the Ministry of Interior, said: ‘Every day we get intelligence and action is taken as per that intelligence and many attacks averted. But the fact that you get the intelligence does not mean something cannot happen.
‘What we are saying is that we are at war, and that every day some young Kenyan is being radicalised by al Shabaab to kill Kenyans.’
The murderous attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya has brought home the need for ‘permanent vigilance’ against terrorism in the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron said today.
Mr Cameron said he had no intelligence of plans for an ‘imminent’ attack in Britain but acknowledged that there was a ‘worry’ that British-based Somalis trained by the extremist Al-Shabaab group in the east African country might return to the UK with the intention of committing outrages.
He said that he had chaired meetings of the Government’s Cobra emergency contingency committee over the past week to discuss the implications of the Westgate attack.
Contingency plans have already been put in place in the period following the similar attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008, he said.
Mr Cameron told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘We have been looking at this for a long time because of the appalling attack that happened in Mumbai in India.
‘I have personally chaired a whole series of meetings years ago, but again actually this week, to check that we have got everything in place to prepare for those sorts of attacks.
‘We don’t have intelligence that something is about to happen, but it pays to be very, very prepared, very, very cautious, and to work out we have everything in place we can to deal with awful events like this.’
Asked whether he was concerned that British-based Somalis might export terror from the African state to the UK, Mr Cameron said: ‘There is always a worry of that and there is a hotbed of terrorism in Somalia that spills over into other countries, and we are concerned about that and follow that.
‘What it shows I think is that we have to keep going against Islamist extremism, whether that is people that are home-grown in our own country or whether it is extremism that is fomenting either on the Horn of Africa or in West Africa or in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
‘It goes to this whole argument about why we need well-funded intelligence services, why we need to be engaged in the world, we need to share intelligence with others and why we have to be permanently vigilant.
‘I take these responsibilities incredibly seriously, I chair the Cobra meetings myself and I make sure that everything from ambulance to fire to police, that everything is prepared.
‘We don’t have intelligence about anything imminent, but of course when that Mumbai attack happened and you see what happened in Kenya, any responsible government would look at its own processes and procedures, and say how would we cope with something like that?’
source: Mail Online
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Don’t Disregard Religious Factor in Kenyan Mall Attack, Say Experts on Radical Islam
Al-Shabab fighters stand in formation during military exercises on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor, File)
(CNSNews.com) – As forensic experts continue to examine the site of al-Shabaab’s Kenyan mall attack, some experts on radical Islam are warning that as long as Western leaders deny the true Islamic agenda driving the group, they will be unable to protect their citizens from its deadly terror campaign.
Identifying religious ideology as key factor in the terrorism is not the same as suggesting that the terrorists represent all Muslims or that all Muslims should be held responsible, they argue – but denying it is specious and self-defeating.
At least 67 people were killed during the four-day hostage crisis which began when more than a dozen gunmen seized control of Nairobi’s upscale Westgate mall.
After the siege ended, al-Shabaab fighters carried out further attacks in two towns along the Kenya-Somalia border, killing at least three people, including two police officers, the Associated Press reported.
In messages posted online during the mall attack, Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali group, said it was reprisal for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. They were deployed there in late 2011 after a series of attacks by al-Shabaab fighters who crossed into Kenya to kidnap and kill foreign aid workers and tourists.
African Union peacekeepers take aim in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
But al-Shabaab’s Islamist ideology was also clearly evident during the crisis. Survivors recounted incidents in which gunmen asked hostages questions to determine their religion, with Muslims – or those pretending to be – allowed to leave safely.
In a later email exchange with the Associated Press, an al-Shabaab spokesman stated, “The mujahedeen [Islamic holy warriors] carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the Kuffar [infidels] before carrying out their attack.”
Al-Shabaab spokesmen also revealed their religious focus in some Internet postings, for instance identifying those surrounding the mall not as Kenyan security forces but as “Christians.”
“We authorize the mujahedeen [Islamic holy warriors] inside the building to take actions against the prisoners as much as they are pressed,” terrorist spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement posted online two days into the siege. “We are telling Christians advancing onto the mujahedeen to have mercy for their prisoners who will bear the brunt of any force directed against the mujahedeen.”
“As far as al-Shabaab is concerned, this is a religious war,” Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of Barnabas Fund and director of the non-profit Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, said on Thursday.
“The statements of those caught up in the shopping center siege make it clear that this was not purely a retaliatory attack over territory,” he wrote in an editorial. “Hostages were lined up by the militants and questioned about their religion; they were asked to name Mohammed’s mother, quote verses from the Qur’an or recite the Islamic creed. Those who could were let go, those who could not – or would not – were killed.
“The defense of their strict and puritanical brand of Islam, Salafi-Wahhabism, is at the heart of al-Shabaab’s killing spree at Westgate, as it is the driving force behind their activities in Somalia and elsewhere.”
In their responses to the attack Western governments tended to avoid any reference to the terrorist’ religion.
Secretary of State John Kerry referred to “perpetrators of this abhorrent violence” and the need to “reaffirm our determination to counter extremism,” while National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayde referred to “the perpetrators of this heinous act” and “efforts to confront terrorism in all its forms, including the threat posed by al-Shabaab.”
The French presidency spoke of “a terrorist attack” and “a heinous act” without mentioning the perpetrators. Germany’s foreign minister spoke of “terrorists” while his Norwegian counterpart referred to “the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab” and the “the fight against international terrorism.”
One Western leader went further, arguing that there was no link between the incident and the group’s religious ideology.
“These appalling terrorist attacks that take place where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion – they don’t,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron. “They do it in the name of terror, violence and extremism and their warped view of the world. They don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world.”
Christians in the firing line
Sookhdeo recalled previous al-Shabaab attacks targeting Christians in Kenya. Last February terrorists shot dead a Somali Christian pastor and injured another in Garissa, about 100 miles from the Somalia border.
In July 2012, al-Shabaab launched a coordinated attack on two Garissa churches during Sunday services, killing 17 people and injuring more than 60. In October, a nine year-old boy was killed and several other children injured when a hand grenade was thrown into a Nairobi Sunday school class; police blamed “al-Shabaab sympathizers.”
Al-Shabaab fighters conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia in October 2010. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
“While world leaders continue to fail to understand, or perhaps accept, the ideological basis within Islam for acts of violence, they will never get to grips with the likes of al-Shabaab,” Sookhdeo said, pointing to Cameron’s remarks.
“To say that ‘they don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world’ is flagrantly untrue. While they clearly do not represent the Muslim majority, al-Shabaab, along with countless Islamic terrorist groups that are rising up and gaining recruits around the world, are striving to observe and impose the teachings of the Quran and the hadith (the traditions about Muhammad) in their most absolute sense.”
Recalling warnings by British security chiefs about the risk that Britons taking part in the Somalia jihad could return home and carry out attacks there, Sookhdeo said if such warnings are to be heeded “al-Shabaab needs to be properly understood.”
“For as long as David Cameron and other Western leaders deny the group’s true agenda, they will fail to protect us all from their deadly campaign.”
‘A very pronounced religious ideology’
Douglas Murray, associate director of the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank, also challenged Cameron’s comments.
“I don’t think any sensible person would argue that the perpetrators represent all Muslims. But it seems strange to say that a separation of people – and massacre of them – based solely on their religious identity can be said to have nothing to do with religion,” he wrote in The Spectator. Murray founded the Center for Social Cohesion, a think tank focusing on extremism and terrorism in Britain.
In a column in the same publication British journalist Melanie McDonagh wrote, “If the Prime Minister had merely observed that the actions of the Kenyan jihadists are abhorrent to the great majority of Muslims and certainly the great majority of British Muslims, no one would have disagreed.
“But to say that al-Shabaab and its representatives in the Westgate shopping mall don’t represent Muslims or Islam anywhere in the world is simply untrue and if we try to deal with jihadis on the basis that they are unspecified extremists rather than people with a very pronounced religious ideology, it’s not really adding to our understanding of what has happened or our ability to prevent something similar happening here.”
source: cnsnews.com
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Source: Store in besieged Kenyan mall run by attackers or associates
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — To anyone shopping at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, it would likely have seemed just another store.
But according to a Kenyan intelligence official, the small shop concealed an ominous secret. It was rented by the Al-Shabaab terrorists, or their associates, who within a year would carry out an attack on the upscale shopping mall.
The information — revealed Friday to CNN by the source, who is close to the investigation into the attack — suggests the Somali terror organization had been planning the operation at least that long.
How the team of terrorists got their weapons and explosives into the mall without notice is a central part of the investigation into the attack, which left at least 67 people dead and parts of the upscale mall in ruins.
The Kenya Red Cross said Friday that 61 people remain unaccounted for. Some could be buried in the rubble of the partially collapsed mall.
At least five of the terrorists also died before Kenyan forces were finally able to bring the siege to an end on Tuesday. The terrorists stormed the building Saturday.
On a Twitter account believed to be run by Al-Shabaab, the group promised more attacks to come.
“The mesmeric performance by the #Westgate Warriors was undoubtedly gripping, but despair not folks, that was just the premiere of Act 1,” according to a tweet posted Thursday.
CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the tweet, but CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said the account, which has also posted links to statements from Shabaab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, appears to be legitimate, even if not “100% authenticated.”
Several Twitter accounts attributed to Al-Shabaab have been shut down in recent days, likely for violating the company’s rules against promoting violence in tweets.
While Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said Friday that eight suspects are being held for questioning in the attack, authorities are increasingly concerned that some of the attackers managed to escape alongside fleeing civilians in the aftermath of the initial attack, U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN.
On Thursday, a Kenyan counterterrorism source told CNN that one of the suspects is an injured Kenyan who was being evacuated when a machine gun magazine fell out of his pocket, leading to suspicion he was among the automatic-weapon toting terrorists who roamed the mall killing civilians. He is being held in a military hospital, the source said.
READ: Source: Kenya mall attack suspect eyed after ammunition fell out of his pocket
Among the suspects are three people picked up near the Ugandan border, the Kenyan official who revealed information about the mall store told CNN.
READ: More U.S. Marines fortify Nairobi embassy security
source: CNN
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‘Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers’: Horrific claims of torture emerge as soldiers reveal gory Kenyan mall massacre details
- Kenyan soldiers claim to find scenes of torture by mall terrorists
- They say children found dead in food fridges with knives still in bodies
- Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed
Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.
Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.
Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling
Most of the defeated terrorists, meanwhile, were reportedly discovered ‘burnt to ashes’, set alight by the last extremist standing to try to protect their identities.
The horrifying details came yesterday as the first pictures emerged from within the wreckage of the building, showing piles of bodies left strewn across the floor.
A third of the mall was destroyed in the battle between terrorists and Kenyan troops.
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- World’s most wanted woman: Interpol issues global arrest warrant for White Widow as it emerges she ‘worked in halal pie shop while on the run’
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Lying in the rubble are feared to be the bodies of as many as 71 civilians who have been declared missing by the Kenyan Red Cross.
With detectives, including the FBI and the Metropolitan Police, still unable to reach the wrecked part of the mall for fear of setting off explosives, it could take up to a week to determine exactly who is still inside.
Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged during the four day siege
Pictured is the aftermath at Westgate Shopping Mall where the roof of the car park collapsed crushing three floors
Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes inside.
‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named.
‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood.
‘They drive knives inside a child’s body.
‘Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers. Here it was pain.’
A soldier, who took pictures at a bread counter and at the ArtCaffe, said he was so traumatised by what he saw he has had to seek counselling.
Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies.
Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes inside
Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies
The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed
Images also emerged yesterday revealing the true extent of the destruction caused to the centre during the four-day battle between Kenyan forces and Islamic militants.
The first pictures taken inside the site show a gaping hole in the mall’s roof after three storeys collapsed when Kenyan soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the complex, knocking out a support column, a government official said.
Children’s buggies are left abandoned just metres from the yawning pit, as cars hang precariously over the edge. Beneath many more vehicles lie on top of each other, smashed to pieces.
The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed.
During the firefight, hostages reportedly had their throats slashed from ear to ear and were thrown screaming from third-floor balconies as the siege came to a bloody end. Forensics teams, still sifting through the mountains of rubble, fear many more bodies are yet to be found.
Shell-shocked Kenyan troops said the inside of the Israeli-run mall resembled a ‘scene from a horror movie’ with blood spattered everywhere and dead bodies strewn across the floor.
Between 10 and 15 terrorists are thought to have stormed the mall on Saturday, according to Kenyan officials. The police said five insurgents were killed in the battle and at least 10 taken into custody
One soldier told the Daily Mirror: ‘I have seen many bad things, but this will haunt me for the rest of my days.’
The main thrust of the operation began at 6am on Monday when troops and helicopters surrounded the building, but their efforts were hampered by an Al Shabaab sniper who managed to pin them back for nearly 24 hours.
As tear gas was used to try to flush him out, another terrorist reportedly blew himself up. It is believed the resulting fire may have killed dozens of shoppers in a supermarket.
The following day, the soldiers were ordered to adopt a ‘shoot to kill’ policy and launched their final attack on the terror group on the roof of the mall at 5pm.
The mall was retaken about half an hour later.
Between 10 and 15 terrorists are thought to have stormed the mall on Saturday, according to Kenyan officials.
The police said five insurgents were killed in the battle and at least 10 taken into custody.
source: Mail Online
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*Videos* Kenya attack: Mall collapse devastation revealed,new footage.
Footage has emerged which shows the extent of the destruction to Nairobi‘s Westgate mall after three floors of the complex collapsed.
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KENYA PRESIDENT: MALL TERRORISTS DEFEATED, 72 DEAD, MORE BODIES TRAPPED
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says security forces have finally defeated a small group of terrorists after four days in fighting at a Nairobi mall.
In a televised address to the nation Tuesday, Kenyatta said “we have ashamed and defeated our attackers.”
He said the attack had left 240 casualties, including 61 dead civilians and six of his security forces. He said five terrorists were killed and another 11 suspects have been taken into custody.
A Kenyan soldier runs through a corridor on an upper floor, shortly before an explosion was heard, at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. (AP)
The president says three floors of the Westgate mall collapsed and that there are “several bodies still trapped in the rubble including the terrorists.”
He declared three days of national mourning.
Developing.
source: The Blaze
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Who is Samantha Lewthwaite? The woman dubbed the ‘White Widow’
July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay pictured with Samantha Lewthwaite Photo: Solo Syndicat
A British woman who has allegedly been involved in terrorism “many times before” was among the militants who laid siege to a Kenyan mall, the country’s foreign minister has claimed.
There is much media speculation that the woman in question could be fugitive British terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, nicknamed the “White Widow”.
Allegedly Samantha Lewthwaite
- Lewthwaite, 29, is the widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the suicide bombers who killed more than 50 people on London’s transport system in 2005.
- The mother of three, who is originally from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, converted to Islam at the age of 15 and married Jamaican-born Muslim convert Lindsay in 2002.
- Lewthwaite is thought to have left Britain several years ago for East Africa and is wanted by Kenyan police over alleged links to a terrorist cell that planned to bomb the country’s coast.
- Briton Jermaine Grant is currently on trial in Kenya over his alleged involvement in the plot to carry bombs attacks after explosive materials were found in a house he was staying in December 2011. Prosecutors have claimed that Grant was working with Lewthwaite.
- In March 2012, officials said Lewthwaite had fled to Somalia and that officers were hunting a woman who used several identities, including hers. Despite efforts to find her she has remained a fugitive.
- Lewthwaite has been linked to Somalian Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. Stuart Osborne, the Met’s former deputy head of Counter-Terrorism, told ITV News her role, if any is unclear.
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Aylesbury councillor Raj Khan, who knew Lewthwaite’s family socially, remembers her as “an average, British, young, ordinary girl. She had a very great personality”.
- [Why are muslims always in denial?…It is such attitudes by so called ‘moderate muslims’ that constitute half the problem and allow radicals to literally get away with murder!]
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“She was not strong-headed. And that’s why I find it absolutely amazing that she is supposed to be the head of an international criminal terrorist organisation.”
Mr Khan added that if Samantha is implicated in the Kenyan terror attack her family will be “very upset”.
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Kenya declares end to Nairobi terror attack after seized mall burn
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (center) delivers a speech during a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, September 23, 2013. The Kenyan leader ruled out withdrawing soldiers from Somalia to refute pressure from al-Shabab gunmen, who launched a deadly attack the previous day on a popular mall in retaliation for the Kenyan intervention. Fred
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan government Twitter accounts claimed early Tuesday that authorities had taken control of all the floors of a Nairobi shopping complex that terrorists had seized Saturday.
The tweets from the Interior Ministry’s account offered few details of what had taken place in the final hours at the upscale Westgate mall. One said that “we are in control of Westgate.”
“Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind,” said another. “We believe all hostages have been released.”
Kenyan television reported that six militants had been “neutralized,” but there was no official confirmation. The Kenyan Defense Forces reported in a tweet that a briefing would be held later, but did not say when.
The Twitter reports followed a day of anxiety over what was happening after a series of explosions and a fire swept through the luxury shopping complex Monday morning.
A Kenyan official hurriedly organized a news conference after the explosions. “We want to assure Kenyans that our forces are in full control of this situation, and we are certain that in no time the fire will be put (out),” Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said.
But the smoke from whatever was burning spewed skyward all day, and when night came golden flames had engulfed the building, licking hungrily into the darkness.
For a nation starving for answers, the spreading smoke from the hidden blaze seemed an apt symbol for a nightmare that had claimed at least 62 lives and left 175 injured. Hundreds of people were trapped when a dozen or so gunmen entered the mall, one of the city’s most popular shopping destinations, at midday Saturday and began spraying bullets and tossing grenades. Kenyan security forces responded, sealing off the streets around the complex and gathering for a push to grab it back from the terrorists.
But Kenyan authorities’ efforts to project an image of control faded Monday as they gave seemingly conflicting messages about what was taking place.
Ole Lenku said the flames came from mattresses the terrorists had set on fire to distract the security forces who were attempting to wrest back control of the building. That contradicted what officials had asserted the day before — that Kenyan forces already had gained full control of that floor — but Ole Lenku declined to clarify his remark.
“We are in control of all the floors,” Ole Lenku said Monday. “The terrorists could be running and hiding in some stores somewhere or something, but all floors now are under our control.”
Kenyan authorities refused to say anything about the source of the explosions, whether they’d set the fire or whether the gunmen possessed more explosives. It was also unclear how the gunmen continued to operate in the thick, black smoke, amid speculation that they were equipped with gas masks and night-vision goggles.
Al-Shabab, the al-Qaida affiliate that’s based in neighboring Somalia, had claimed the meticulously orchestrated attack as retaliation against Kenya for crossing into southern Somalia two years ago to beat back the U.S.-designated terrorist group.
A terrified woman and her two children walk past the body of a man as they escape the Westgate shopping centre
Eyewitnesses have told how the gunmen, who Kenyan authorities have said numbered 10 to 15, jumped out of vehicles, strapped heavily with ammunition. Some stormed through the front entrance as others ran up a parking lot ramp to the top floor, trapping shoppers in between.
By striking the Westgate, the terrorist group hit not just a mall, but also the very heart of the city’s identity — and a prime economic engine. The Israeli-owned mall is a favorite destination not just for well-off Kenyans but also for Nairobi’s large expatriate community, much of which is here because civil wars and political instability in nearby lands made relatively peaceful Nairobi a regional hub for diplomats and aid workers.
Nairobi is the main headquarters for the United Nations in Africa, including the international headquarters for the U.N. Environmental Program. Nairobi also holds the largest U.S. foreign mission in Africa — a replacement for the U.S. Embassy that al-Qaida bombed in 1998, killing more than 200 people.
Foreign investors have flocked here in recent years. Google and General Electric have headquartered their African operations in Nairobi.
Westerners who work or travel regularly in the wider region use Nairobi as a sanctuary of fine cuisine, comfort and fellow countrymen.
Kelly Ranck, a 26 year-old American, is based in Nairobi but spends roughly half her time in remote field posts in South Sudan and Chad working for World Concern, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization.
“After being in the bush, this place feels like a slice of heaven,” Ranck said. She can hang out with like-minded peers and relax into a more familiar lifestyle, she said. Without her breaks in Nairobi, “I would totally burn out,” she said.
Kenya is clearly sensitive to the effect the attack might have on its reputation for stability — and on its wallet, which relies heavily on tourism. The nation’s image already took a hit earlier this year with the election as president of Uhuru Kenyatta, whom the International Criminal Court charged with crimes against humanity stemming from post-election violence. Kenyatta’s deputy, William Ruto, faces similar accusations from the court.
Two former bitter political rivals in Kenya facing trial at the International Criminal Court, Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and William Ruto (R)
Kenyatta organized a news conference Sunday with two main presidential candidates he’d defeated in the elections in March. Each spoke for only a few minutes, but all three made sure to issue a plea to global communities to refrain from warning their citizens not to travel to Kenya. The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it was suspending travel here for government employees.
“This is an incident of terror, an incident that can happen in any city, in any capital, anywhere in the world,” Kenyatta said. “This is not the time to issue travel advisories, for in doing so, the success is only for those who wish to cause harm.”
But as the flames burned at the Westgate, the damage already appeared to have been done.
SOURCE: STARS AND STRIPES
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Nairobi attack: How I led trapped to safety
Satpal Singh said he wanted to help fellow Kenyans
Satpal Singh was inside the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi when gunmen opened fire. He describes how he helped to lead some of the trapped people to safety, and even went back inside to carry injured people out of the building, despite coming under fire himself.
I was at the mall for a business meeting – we were upstairs where the Java coffee house is, where the children were doing their cooking competition at the car park.
At about 12:25 we heard lots of gunshots and loud bangs downstairs near the main entrance, so I looked to see what was gong on.
I saw people running in all directions, gunshots being fired everywhere and people falling on the ground. Nobody was going down there to do anything – people were just running away from the scene.
I ran downstairs, and reaching first floor I came across an armed police officer near a pillar and I told him let’s go down and see what the situation is and see what we can do.
Face-to-face
To my surprise, he never came down with me, so I just ran down alone where the jewellery shop is at the main entrance. I saw one man with his face down on the floor and another man was by the staircase bleeding.
More than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre when gunmen opened fireAs I went to help, I saw a Somali guy running at me from the stairs [and he] fired two shots at me. He was wearing a white shirt, he had a huge bag hanging on his right shoulder, and he was not wearing a mask so I actually saw him face-to-face.
I don’t know how he missed. To me it looked like a big gun, so it must be an AK-47, I assume.
I think they were shooting anybody and everyone who came in their way, or was trying to help the people who had fallen down.
When he fired the first shot I just ducked down quickly. He fired the second shot and he missed me, so then I ran back to the first floor to get this cop so we could go down and confront this gentleman.
When I reached the first floor I couldn’t find the policeman, so then it was back to the top floor. I rushed up there, then pushed everybody into Books First, which is where the cinema hall is, and told the security guard to put the shutters down.
Then we heard the gunshots getting closer so we pushed people up to where the tickets are sold and told everyone to duck down.
Armed police help civilians trapped in the mall, as they search for the gunmenWe saw two people come up and they were firing in [all directions] and they had bandanas tied on their heads. We couldn’t see their faces properly but we did see that they were carrying bags.
Although the shutters were down, the windows were made of glass. We asked the employees from the cinema if there were any fire exits that we could use, so they took us to the movie theatre to show us where the fire exits were.
Escape
After we went through the fire exit, we went onto the top terrace on the top roof, and we blocked the door with construction equipment that was there, because we couldn’t lock the door from the outside.
There were gas welding machines, gas cylinders and bricks lying around so we took the gas cylinders and barricaded the door because they were quite heavy.
I think [there were] over 40 people on the roof terrace – there was one policeman who was in his vest who had removed his shirt, I think for safety reasons, so that he couldn’t be recognised by the terrorists, although he was carrying an AK-47.
We had pregnant women with us, we had children with us, we had lots of people from different backgrounds with us.
After about 45 minutes we [looked over to the]… car park where the cooking show was going on, where children were shot, and we saw people [there were] being mobilised toward the Java coffee house fire escape and being taken to safety.
So we all went towards the fire escape on the roof terrace which lead to the Java coffee house, and we started going downstairs, all the way to the basement where deliveries are made.
We could hear gunshots and loud bangs, so as soon as we reached the basement we started pushing people out through the gate onto the streets very fast.
Once we got everybody out, the policeman who was with us went towards the basement to see if there was anybody there, or any terrorists, and he got shot in the leg and he dropped his gun so we had to bring him back out.
Rescuing the wounded
I met an ex-British soldier who said there were still people trapped on the top floor where we came from – he said he had touched the eyes of four people and they were not moving, they were dead.
But there were others who were wounded and needed help.
The police officers were armed, they had bullet proof vests, so we [asked them to]… come with us to the top floor and bring these people down. They didn’t help us, so we decided to go up there again by ourselves.
We found people with gunshot wounds – that’s why blood is on my shoes. We carried them on our shoulders down the fire escape and we took them out – we rescued women and children who were injured and wounded.
What went through my mind was just to save people and do what I could for fellow Kenyans.
At that moment you are in a state where you do not care what happens to you, but you want to get out there, you want to control the situation, you want to do whatever it takes to save people.
In the moment you surrender yourself to God and he encourages you, protects you and guides you and shows you which way to go.
Satpal Singh spoke to Newsday on the BBC World Service.
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Nairobi Westgate attack: The victims
A scene from Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, showing up upturned pram
Details are emerging about some of those who died in the attack on a Nairobi shopping centre by suspected al-Shabab militants. The siege continues.
About 62 people have died. This page will be updated as new information comes to light.
Kenya
Ruhila Adatia-Sood
Ruhila Adatia-Sood and her husband were married in January last yearRuhila Adatia-Sood, a popular TV and radio personality, was in the rooftop car park of the Westgate shopping centre where she was part of a team hosting a cooking competition for small children at the time of the attack.
She was married to Ketan Sood, who worked for USAid in Nairobi, in January 2012 in what has been described as Swahili-themed wedding.
She was six months’ pregnant with their first child when she died.
According to reports, Ms Adatia-Sood was rushed to Aga Khan Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
She was “known throughout Kenya for her passion, vibrancy, and gift for making people smile”, USAid administrator Rajiv Shah said in a statement.
On her Twitter account, she described herself as a “food lover, thrill seeker and a bungee jump away from sanity”.
A graduate of South Africa’s Rhodes University in Grahamstown, her three elder sisters described her as “a go-getter since childhood”.
She was a presenter on Radio Africa media group’s East FM and said she hosted entertainment news on Kiss TV, E-News, Kiss 100 and X-FM.
On Saturday she was tweeting Instagram photos of those attending the cooking competition in the car park.
Her colleague, Kamal Kaur, also a radio presenter, was helping with the competition and was at the event with her two young children when she said they all came under attack from a gunman.
“A grenade was thrown at us and it went off. At the same time he shot at us. The bullet missed my son by just an inch; it bounced off the wall and hit the boy who was next to him,” she told the BBC.
“Then he [the attacker] came out again with his big rifle. My daughter kept whispering to everybody: “Pretend you’re dead! Pretend you’re dead! He won’t shoot…pretend you’re dead.”
Ms Kaur and her children managed to escape – her children were hit in their legs by shrapnel.
“My daughter is very devastated because my colleague Ruhila… she was six months pregnant and she lost her life and we’re very devastated about that… Very devastated about that,” Ms Kaur said.
Mbugua Mwangi and Rosemary Wahito
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nephew Mbugua Mwangi and his fiancee Rosemary Wahito are among the many Kenyans killed in the attack on the Westgate shopping centre.
Addressing the nation on Saturday, Uhuru Kenyatta said:
“I ask God to give you comfort as you confront this tragedy, and I know what you feel having also lost very close family members in this deadly attack.”
According to the Irish Independent newspaper, Mr Mwangi’s mother, Catherine Muigai Mwangi, had recently returned home from Dublin following a six-year posting as Kenya’s ambassador to Ireland.
Mr Kenyatta’s elder sister Christine Wambui Pratt had also been at Westgate at the time of the attack, but managed to escape.
Mitul Shah
Mitul Shah ran his company’s football team, which plays in the second divisionA sales and marketing director of Bidco, a company that primarily makes cooking oil, Mitul Shah was also up in the rooftop car park at the cooking competition.
“He died trying to save stranded children. He died as a hero,” Half Jadhe Half Kyuk wrote on the KenyaList.com message board.
He described Mitual Shah as a “die-hard Manchester United fan”.
He was also chairman of Bidco’s football team, which plays in the second division.
Peter Simani
Peter Simani was a highly respected lawyer
He and his friend both died in the attack. His friend’s name is not known yet.An aviation and communications expert and a lawyer by training, Peter Simani was meeting a friend at Westgate mall on Saturday when the militants burst in.
Peter Simani chaired the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal and was also a director of the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
Ngene Gituku, chairman of the CCK board, said that Kenya had lost a “brilliant lawyer with an incisive and highly analytical mind”.
“My board highly relied on Mr Simani’s guidance on delicate decisions on legal issues, especially those touching on the regulation of the fast-growing ICT sector,” he said in a statement.
Rajan Solanki
The 24-year-old food entrepreneur died on Saturday. It is likely he was at the food competition taking place in the rooftop car park.
He founded the food website Pika Chakula, which means “cook food” in KiSwahili, with a mission to “teach people how to cook”.
Rajan Solanki was passionate about good food“A very smart gentle man who enjoyed the simple things in life, outgoing and never learnt how to say no. Never had nothing against any one,” said a post on a Facebook page set up to remember him.
His funeral was held on Monday at the Hindu Crematorium in Nairobi.
“To all our Pika Chakula fans. This week we will be posting Rajan Solanki’s favourite dishes and recipes,” the website tweeted on Tuesday.
Neha Mashru
A student at the private Oshawal Academy near Westgate shopping centre, she died on Saturday during the shoot-out.
“Head girl, dancer, awesome friend,” a Facebook community set up to remember her says.
“A girl who you could talk to about anything,” the post continues.
Vaya sisters-in-law
Joyti Kharmes Vaya was a 37-year-old mother of three whose husband worked for Victoria Commercial bank, it said.
Maltiben Ramesh Vaya was aged 41, a mother of two who worked for the Bank of Baroda.
“Both daughters-in-law succumbed to injuries related to gunshot wounds in yesterday’s terror attack in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall,” a message on Facebook posted by a Pattni Brotherhood community in Nairobi said.
Other Kenyans:
A man looks at a newspaper bearing funeral arrangements of victims of the Westgate mall terrorist attack in Nairobi, on 24 September 2013
Vaya sisters-in-law, Joyti Kharmes Vaya and Maltiben Ramesh Vaya
Joyti Kharmes Vaya was a 37-year-old mother of three, whose husband worked for Victoria Commercial bank, it said.
Maltiben Ramesh Vaya was aged 41, a mother of two, who worked for the Bank of Baroda.
“Both daughters-in-law succumbed to injuries related to gunshot wounds in yesterday’s terror attack in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall,” a message on Facebook posted by a Pattni Brotherhood community in Nairobi said.
Nehal Vekaria, a 16-year-old student, has been crematedNehal Vekaria: a 16-year-old student. On Sunday, her family held her funeral where she was cremated.
UK
Six Britons are among those killed. None has been formally identified, but they are believed to include Ross Langdon, who had dual Australian and British nationality (see below), and the daughter of Louis Bawa.
Jennah Bawa, eight, had been on a shopping trip with her Kenyan-born mother, Zahira Bawa, on Saturday in Westgate. It is not clear if Zahira has been counted as one of the dead Britons.
Louis Bawa spent agonising hours outside the mall for news of his wife and daughter
“The last time I spoke to them was on Friday evening, I didn’t get a chance to catch up with them on Saturday morning. They were going to Westgate to do what they always did, grocery shopping. This time they didn’t come home,” Mr Bawa told the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.The family lived in Leamington Spa until last year, when lawyer Mrs Bawa is reported to have returned to Kenya to look after her mother. Mr Bawa then took a job as the chief executive of a marketing company in Dubai and began travelling to see his family in Nairobi at weekends.
“Zahira and Jennah were Muslims, but these animals just shot them the same as all of the others,” he told the paper.
Mr Bawa had spent agonising hours outside the shopping mall, hoping to hear from them. He found out on Sunday night that they were among the dead, identifying them from photographs taken of victims inside the shopping centre.
Australia and Holland
Ross Langdon and Elif Yavuz were expecting their first child next monthRoss Langdon an Australian architect, who grew up in Tasmania and had dual British nationality, died in the shootout along with his Dutch girlfriend, Elif Yavuz, a 33-year-old health worker and Harvard graduate.
Mr Langdon co-founded Regional Associates and worked in East Africa on sustainable architecture projects.
“Profoundly talented and full of life, Ross enriched the lives of all those around him,” the company said on its website.
“Ross’s leadership on projects throughout East Africa was inspirational, and he will be will be very, very sorely missed by us all.”
Peter Adams, a family friend in Tasmania, paid tribute to the couple on his blog: “There just was no dark side to Ross that I ever saw in the 20 or so years I knew him”.
“We all took immense pride in both his architectural abilities and his very generous, positive, and loving personality.”
Amongst his achievements was his “pro-bono” design for an Aids hospital in Kenya, Mr Adams said.
“In Uganda he designed and supervised a unique eco-village employing only local labour,” he added.
Ms Yavuz, who was expecting their first child in two weeks’ time, worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Adams said.
Canada
Annemarie Desloges
A 29-year-old Canadian diplomat who served at the country’s high commission in Kenya as a liaison officer with the Canada Border Services Agency.
Her husband, Robert Munk, was injured in the attack but has since been released from hospital, officials said.
Another Canadian had died, but has not been named.
Ghana
Kofi Awoonor
The 78-year-old Ghanaian was a renowned poet – regarded as literary royalty at home, where his poetry and novels are considered essential reading at schools.
He was in Nairobi as a participant in the Storymoja Hay Festival and was due to perform on Saturday evening.
He became known for his poetry in the 1960s and was inspired by the singing and oral storytelling of his Ewe ethnic group – his first published collection was called Rediscovery.
In the 1970s he taught at several universities in the US, returning to Ghana in 1975 to take up a position as head of English at the University of Cape Coast.
Within months he was arrested and detained for a year on suspicion of treason during the military rule of Col Ignatius Acheampong.
This provoked protests from Amnesty International and writers such as the beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
He became more politically active after his incarceration, serving as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil in the 1980s, and – after the country’s return to multi-party democracy – as ambassador to the UN.
Ghana’s President John Mahama said he was shocked by such a sad twist of fate: “A writer, politician and traditionalist with great wit, sense of humour and very well-spoken. He will be sorely missed…”
Mr Awoonor’s son was with him in Nairobi and was shot in the shoulder during the attack.
India
Sridhar Natarajan
The 40-year-old who died in Westgate was working for a pharmaceutical firm in Nairobi, Indian external ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Twitter.
He was from Tamil Nadu in southern India.
Paramshu Jain
The eight-year-old son of a branch manager for the Bank of Baroda also died in the mall, Mr Akbaruddin said.
Peru
Juan Jesus Ortiz
A doctor and former deputy head of the Kenyan branch of the UN children’s fund, Juan Jesus Ortiz was at the shopping centre with his 13-year-old daughter Juanita.
The 63-year-old died at the scene, his daughter was shot in the leg and hand and required surgery but is expected to survive, his son, Ricardo Ortiz, told Peru’s RPP radio.
South Korea
Kang Moon-hee
The 38-year-old was fatally wounded from gunshot wounds and shrapnel from a grenade, South Korean’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Sources told the agency she died while being treated at a hospital on Sunday.
Her husband, a British citizen, has received surgery for a gunshot wound and is reportedly currently in stable condition.
According to AFP, the couple had only recently moved to Nairobi from Dubai.
Trinidad and Tobago
Ravindra Ramrattan
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a statement extending condolences to Ravrinda Ramrattan’s family. Mr Ramrattan had been working as a research analyst with the World Bank in Nairobi since September 2011, the statement added.
Other nationals
China: China’s official news agency reported that a 38-year-old Chinese woman had been killed – her teenage son was injured.
France: A mother and daughter were “executed in the parking lot” of Westgate, Helene Conway-Mouret, the French minister in charge of nationals living abroad, told private French channel BFM-TV.
South Africa: One national has died at Westgate, officials said.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
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Somalia: Al-Shabab remains a potent threat
The BBC’s Mark Doyle spent time on armoured patrol with African Union peacekeepers in Kismayo
Somalia‘s al-Shabab militants have said they carried out the attack on a Nairobi shopping centre in “retribution” for Kenya‘s efforts to help the Somali government. Kenyan troops are part of the African Union force in the country. Despite losing ground, al-Shabab remains a potent threat as the BBC’s Mark Doyle reports from Kismayo – once the group’s main base.
On a bright, moonlit night at Kismayo airport, the crack-and-whizz of high-velocity bullets suddenly pierces the silence.
“Incoming fire!” someone shouts.
The “crack-whizz” then gives way to the deeper “thud-thud-thud” of the airport defender’s heavy machine guns.
It is probably an attack by the Islamist al-Shabab militia.
Defending the airport are troops of the African Union force in Somalia, Amisom.
I carefully climb up to a high position and see a light a kilometre or two away to the south. It looks like car headlights rising and falling on a bumpy track.
Then the mortars start: “crump-whoosh, crump-whoosh”. Definitely outgoing fire. Possibly towards that moving light.
Then suddenly silence returns.
It was an interesting few minutes. But it was the symptom, not the cause.
If you want to understand Somalia, Dr Abdisamad Abubacar Haji of the Kismayo General Hospital is a useful person to meet.
“Our main issue is not a lack of drugs,” Dr Haji says, blowing away the usual story of poverty and shortages I was expecting at the run-down hospital.
“No, the main problem here is security. It is sometimes difficult to treat your patient because he might kill you.”
I was in a hospital ward with rough concrete walls and beds without proper sheets. The dirty windows allowed in only a little light.
The ward was full of patients with blast- or bullet-wounds from a car-bomb assassination attempt a couple of weeks ago.
On one bed was a man whose legs had been shattered by the explosion. He was wired up all along his body in a primitive splint. I doubt he will ever walk properly again.
The target of the attack was warlord Ahmed Madobe, the leader of the region around Kismayo, known as Jubaland.
Ahmed Madobe is the head of the Ras Kamboni militia in the Kismayo areaMr Madobe survived the attack; he was reportedly in a bullet-proof car. More than 20 other people were killed.
The death toll remains vague as the medics could not account for all of the pieces of flesh they gathered at the scene.
Dr Haji’s “problem”, as he delicately put it, was when he conducts the triage of incoming wounded.
“When you have so many people to treat,” the wiry, bearded Dr Haji says, “they are all shouting ‘Treat me first! Treat me first!’
“But we are doctors and our training tells us we must treat the most serious cases first. So whoever we judge should be second or third in line might get angry and attack us – or even kill us.”
Absence of aid
We left the hospital in a heavily armoured African Union convoy, with soldiers from the West African state of Sierra Leone.
Scene at a camp for internally displaced people on the edge of KismayoIt is not possible for foreigners – or even, often, Somalis – to travel safely without armed guards. The possibility of kidnap or roadside bombs is very real.
We arrived on the edge of Kismayo, at a camp for people made homeless by the war – refugees in their own country.
You can find these all over Somalia. Here, there was no sign whatsoever of any aid agencies helping.
Children played in the twisted carcass of what was once a car sat on a mound of rubbish.
International aid organisations were not seen at the campThe people lived in shacks made of sticks and plastic bags. The lucky ones have the odd corrugated iron sheet.
Moussa Ali, who lives in this filthy camp, used to be a farmer near the town of Djilib, north of Kismayo.
He was well-off by Somali standards.
“I had a seven-roomed house and a 20 hectare plot. I grew sesame seeds, beans and mangoes,” he says.
But he abandoned all this because of what he said was the unbearable oppression of living under al-Shabab.
“They wouldn’t let my girls go to school,” he says.
“Every time I made a bit of money they made me give them half in Zakawat (tax for their cause). If I refused, they threatened to kill me.”
Troop shortfall
Somalia has suffered for decades from a proliferation of firearms and deep-seated clan animosities.
Somalia doesn’t have “tribes” like the rest of Africa. Everyone here is “ethnic Somali”.
So instead their forum for disputes is the clan.
Defending the airport are troops of the African Union force in Somalia, Amisom.
I carefully climb up to a high position and see a light a kilometre or two away to the south. It looks like car headlights rising and falling on a bumpy track.
Then the mortars start: “crump-whoosh, crump-whoosh”. Definitely outgoing fire. Possibly towards that moving light.
Then suddenly silence returns.
It was an interesting few minutes. But it was the symptom, not the cause.
If you want to understand Somalia, Dr Abdisamad Abubacar Haji of the Kismayo General Hospital is a useful person to meet.
“Our main issue is not a lack of drugs,” Dr Haji says, blowing away the usual story of poverty and shortages I was expecting at the run-down hospital.
“No, the main problem here is security. It is sometimes difficult to treat your patient because he might kill you.”
I was in a hospital ward with rough concrete walls and beds without proper sheets. The dirty windows allowed in only a little light.
The ward was full of patients with blast- or bullet-wounds from a car-bomb assassination attempt a couple of weeks ago.
On one bed was a man whose legs had been shattered by the explosion. He was wired up all along his body in a primitive splint. I doubt he will ever walk properly again.
The target of the attack was warlord Ahmed Madobe, the leader of the region around Kismayo, known as Jubaland.
Ahmed Madobe is the head of the Ras Kamboni militia in the Kismayo areaMr Madobe survived the attack; he was reportedly in a bullet-proof car. More than 20 other people were killed.
The death toll remains vague as the medics could not account for all of the pieces of flesh they gathered at the scene.
Dr Haji’s “problem”, as he delicately put it, was when he conducts the triage of incoming wounded.
“When you have so many people to treat,” the wiry, bearded Dr Haji says, “they are all shouting ‘Treat me first! Treat me first!’
“But we are doctors and our training tells us we must treat the most serious cases first. So whoever we judge should be second or third in line might get angry and attack us – or even kill us.”
Absence of aid
We left the hospital in a heavily armoured African Union convoy, with soldiers from the West African state of Sierra Leone.
Scene at a camp for internally displaced people on the edge of KismayoIt is not possible for foreigners – or even, often, Somalis – to travel safely without armed guards. The possibility of kidnap or roadside bombs is very real.
We arrived on the edge of Kismayo, at a camp for people made homeless by the war – refugees in their own country.
You can find these all over Somalia. Here, there was no sign whatsoever of any aid agencies helping.
Children played in the twisted carcass of what was once a car sat on a mound of rubbish.
International aid organisations were not seen at the campThe people lived in shacks made of sticks and plastic bags. The lucky ones have the odd corrugated iron sheet.
Moussa Ali, who lives in this filthy camp, used to be a farmer near the town of Djilib, north of Kismayo.
He was well-off by Somali standards.
“I had a seven-roomed house and a 20 hectare plot. I grew sesame seeds, beans and mangoes,” he says.
But he abandoned all this because of what he said was the unbearable oppression of living under al-Shabab.
“They wouldn’t let my girls go to school,” he says.
“Every time I made a bit of money they made me give them half in Zakawat (tax for their cause). If I refused, they threatened to kill me.”
Troop shortfall
Somalia has suffered for decades from a proliferation of firearms and deep-seated clan animosities.
Somalia doesn’t have “tribes” like the rest of Africa. Everyone here is “ethnic Somali”.
So instead their forum for disputes is the clan.
In southern Somalia, the main current dispute is between the Ogadeni and Marehan sub-clans.
But it has been overshadowed and internationalised by al-Shabab, which has exploited the latent clan warfare and taken control of about half of southern and central of Somalia.
Enter, in 2007, Amisom – the 17,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia – made up of soldiers from several African nations.
Amisom is paid for by Western countries because they do not want another Afghanistan. Al-Shabab is allied to al-Qaeda.
The thoughtful and bespectacled Brigadier Antony Ngere is the Kenyan commander of Amisom’s southern sector.
In 2009 and 2010 Kenya suffered attacks and kidnappings originating from across the border in Somalia.
“The Kenyan army is in Somalia to check and, if possible, eliminate al-Shabab”, Brig Ngere tells me.
“We have liberated important parts of the south and could do more – but we lack enough troops or equipment”.
I put it to Brig Ngere that Kenya was in fact more interested in protecting its own border – and potentially creating a useful buffer state in southern Somalia under the leadership of Ahmed Madobe – than it was in bringing peace to the whole country.
“That is not true”, he says. “We do have a very long border with Somalia, which we have to protect. But we are not creating any buffer state.
“We need the international community – the aid organisations – to come to the aid of the suffering Somali people,” says Brig Ngere.
I did not personally see a single foreign aid worker operating on the ground in Kismayo.
“We are in control of Kismayo. Now we plead with the aid agencies to come and help.”
Many camps for the displaced have no running water and no electricitySomalia: Failed State
Two decades of anarchy
Islamist purgeWatch/Listen
Somalia ‘moving in the right direction’Background
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Nairobi attack: London man named as one of the terrorists as gunfire is heard inside shopping mall
Siege: Kenyan security personnel take cover outside the Westgate Mall after shooting started inside the mall early this morning
A London man has been named as one of the terrorists who stormed a Kenyan shopping mall killing 68 people.
Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the outrage at the mall in the affluent Westlands district in Nairobi. Last night a Twitter feed related to the group claimed that a London man was among the 15 “holy warriors” who carried out the attack.
The claim came as David Cameron warned the country to be braced for “more bad news” after three British people were confirmed dead in the attack.
Ongoing: Kenyan soldiers prepare for an incoming fire at the Oshwal Centre adjacent to the Westgate shopping mall .
Gunfire has reportedly been heard from inside the Westgate Mall this morning, where Kenyan Defence Forces are still involved in a hostage rescue operation.
Earlier the Kenyan Defence Forces said “most of the hostages” had already been rescued and the majority of the building had been secured in a major military operation.
The UK has offered Kenya assistance, including intelligence co-operation, in response to the attack by Islamic extremists in the upmarket shopping centre which has left 68 dead and more than 170 injured, including many children.
Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the atrocity, which Mr Cameron described as an “absolutely sickening and despicable act of appalling brutality”.
The Foreign Office is investigating suggestions that a female British terror suspect nicknamed the “White Widow” could have been linked to the plot.
Escape: women carrying children run for safety as armed police enter the complex
It came after reports emerged that a woman was among the attackers, fuelling speculation that wanted Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was involved.
She is wanted by Kenyan police over links to a suspected terrorist cell planning bomb attacks.
In March 2012 it was reported that Lewthwaite, 29, who is originally from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, had fled across the border from Kenya to Somalia.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the reports and we are looking into them.”
The spokesman added: “It is really difficult to substantiate. We are looking at the names and seeing what we can find out.”
Survivor: a man is helped out of Westgate Shopping Centre
A Twitter account purporting to be an al-Shabaab spokesman named a 24-year-old man from London as one of the gunmen.
The @hsm-press2 account listed a string of names it claimed were involved in the attack before being closed down, as previous usernames linked to the terrorist group had been.
The Kenya Defence Forces said it is now in control of the majority of the shopping mall.
“Most of the hostages have been rescued and security forces have taken control of most parts of the building … all efforts are underway to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion,” it said on Twitter.
Four personnel were injured in the operation to retake the mall and were taken to hospital for treatment.
Mr Cameron said he had offered the Kenyan authorities “every assistance” in a call to president Uhuru Kenyatta, who lost members of his own family in the attack.
The Prime Minister was at pains to stress that the perpetrators did not represent the majority of Muslims but had carried out the atrocity “in the name of terror, violence and extremism”.
“These appalling terrorist attacks that take place, where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion, they don’t,” he said.
“They do it in the name of terror, violence and extremism and their warped view of the world.
“They don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world.”
Setting out the UK’s response, he added: “Obviously the first priority is to make sure we do everything for the British nationals caught up in this, so we’re strengthening the consular services that we have and the people that we have to look after our people.
“We’ve also offered the Kenyans help in terms of policing and advice and intelligence collaboration and other areas which we will be able to help with.”
Terrified shoppers have told of how they huddled in back hallways as gunmen threw grenades and then opened fire
Witness Elijah Kamau said the gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted, as they began their attack.
Among those dead was reportedly a pregnant woman who had organised a children’s party at the mall.
Foreigners from France, Canada, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, Ghana and the US were also killed in the attack, including a Canadian diplomat working at Canada’s High Commission to Kenya.
UK staff from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia travelled to assist locally-based officials with the efforts in Nairobi and a rapid deployment
team was sent from London, the Foreign Office said.
Foreign Secretary William Hague chaired a meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra to co-ordinate the response to the situation.
Labour leader Ed Miliband offered his support to the Government and said: “Those who carried out this attack will be condemned across the globe. The cold-blooded killing of innocent women, children and men is as despicable as it is shocking.”
An al-Shaabab spokesman told Channel 4 News that westerners would not be safe in Kenya until the country pulled its forces out of Somalia.
He said: “Kenyans have blood on their hands. Anyone who is prepared to come to Kenya must be prepared to face the reality, and we don’t fear Europeans and Americans because we are not weak.
“And we are saying to the Europeans and the Americans who have been supporting those who have been attacking us, you should tell the Kenyans to stop their aggression if you want to be safe.”
Kenya’s Red Cross said the death toll from the militant attack on the mall had risen to 68 and president Kenyatta’s nephew and his fiancee were among those killed.
“These are young lovely people I personally knew and loved,” the president said, promising retribution against the terrorists.
“They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts.
“Like the cowardly perpetrators now cornered in the building, we will punish the masterminds swiftly and indeed very painfully.
“I call on Kenyans to stand courageous and united. Let us not sacrifice our values and dignity to appease cowards.
“Our victory must be conclusive – let us defeat them with our unity.”
Video footage of the attack showed terrified shoppers running for cover as the sound of gunfire could be heard.
The video, obtained by CCTV Africa, revealed the scenes in a supermarket in the mall, where some people tried to hide in the store’s aisles as others fled for safety.
The footage showed shoppers abandoning their trolleys as repeated shots rang out.
At one point a group of people are seen hiding behind a door, peering through a small window as someone making a mobile phone call says “there’s a terrorist”.
source: London Evening Standard
Related articles
- Nairobi mall terror attack video emerges showing terrified shoppers fleeing gunfire (metro.co.uk)
- Gunfire heard in Nairobi mall, two wounded troops evacuated (capitalfm.co.ke)
- Somalia condemns Nairobi ‘terrorist’ attack (worldbulletin.net)
- Young Sikh Boy Slaughtered In Cold Blood In Muslim Terror Attack On Nairobi Shopping Mall (cpnagasaki.wordpress.com)
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