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Al-Shabab gunmen have attacked a college campus in the town of Garissa in north-east Kenya, shooting indiscriminately in dormitories and killing at least 15 people and wounding 65 others, police said.Witnesses said explosions and heavy gunfire rocked Garissa University College early yesterday as the gunmen stormed the complex. Ambulances were seen driving injured students to local hospitals.
The gunmen were holding an “unknown number of student hostages,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement. Some “50 students have been safely freed”, the organisation said.
Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover, witnesses said.
Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group said their gunmen were holding Christian hostages inside the complex in revenge for Nairobi’s troops fighting in Somalia. The gunmen divided students at the north-eastern Garissa University between Muslims and non-Muslims, letting the Muslim students go, rebel spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said.
“Kenya is at war with Somalia . . . our people are still there, they are fighting and their mission is to kill those who are against the Shabab,” Rage said.
“When our men arrived, they released some people, the Muslims, and it is them that alerted the government. We are holding the others hostage,” he said, adding those seized were Christians, but not saying how many there were.
He did not give details on the number of casualties but said “there are very many”.
Speaking from Garissa, cabinet secretary Joseph Nkaissery said one of the gunmen was arrested as he tried to flee the scene.
The gunmen opened fire at university, triggering a “fierce shootout” with police guarding student dorms, Kenya’s National Police Service said in a written statement.
Police spokesperson Zipporah Mboroki said that the situation is ongoing and that the gunmen were holed up inside the university complex.
“The attackers shot the guards at the entrance of the university. Police officers responded but the attackers managed to get into the university hostel,” she said.
“We can confirm that two watchmen were killed; we cannot confirm student casualties,” Mboroki added.
Local journalists, however, reported that at least 10 bodies were brought to a hospital in Garissa.
“The Kenyan Defence Force (KDF) and all security agencies within Garissa have been deployed to the scene,” Mboroki said.
The attack on the university facility began at dawn, Alinoor Moulid, a freelance journalist based in Garissa, said. “According to some of the students who escaped, there are around five gunmen and they entered the university dormitory while students were sleeping,” Moulid said.
“It’s hard to tell about casualties because the area is now cordoned off, and it is heavily guarded,” he added. “At the moment, I can hear sirens, and at some point I could hear an exchange of gunfire.”
Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Garissa and across Kenya in the past, including the 2013 attack on an upscale shopping mall in the capital Nairobi.
The group has vowed to punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia alongside African Union peacekeepers to fight the group.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Farah Maalim, a former Kenyan Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, described the attack on the university as “scary”.
“The university has no less than 1,000 students. The damage can be colossal, but no one seems to know at this point,” Maalim said.
“You cannot fight these isolated attacks with conventional military tactics, which still seems to be the only response.”
“There is a possible intelligence lapse here, and that is no excuse because we have state of the art of intelligence gathering and plans can be intercepted.”
Maalim said al-Shabab was losing the battle it has been waging in Somalia and Kenya.
“They are on the death bed. They need to be in the limelight; that is why they are going for these soft targets,” he said.
Garissa University College (GUC), the only public institution of higher learning in the region, opened its doors in 2011, according to the institution’s website.
The institution is situated in Garissa County in the northeastern region of Kenya, about 380km from Nairobi, the capital.
Meanwhile, students at the Garissa University College in Kenya were warned of a possible attack but thought it was an April Fool’s day joke, according to a News24 Kenya correspondent on the scene.
Students at the institution said there had been warning messages and notices placed in the school compound that warned of planned terror attacks, urging vigilance.
However, most of the students thought the notices were an April Fool’s day prank.
“There were notices and we were warned, but it was April 1, who would think it was serious,” said Ali Noor, a third year business student, who was lucky enough to miss the attack because he slept at a friend’s home outside the campus.
“It’s the holidays so we were all in a good mood. It is so sad that it was actually true,” a shocked Noor said.
Noor has friends who he thinks are stuck in the university hostel but he cannot reach them as their phones are off.
“I have friends there. I hope they are okay,” a shaken Noor added.
A prior notice had also been placed at different universities in the country, warning of impending attacks on an unnamed institution.
The Al Shabaab militia group has already taken responsibility for the attack. – News24
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