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| Africa Horn | |
| Somali Shebab University Massacre Gunmen were Kenyans | |
| 2015-04-17 | |
| [AnNahar] All four gunnies from Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab who carried out the Kenyan university massacre earlier this month were Kenyans themselves, reports said Thursday. The The fact that all four are reported to be Kenyans highlights the Somali myrmidons' ability to recruit within Kenya. One of the four gunnies killed by Kenyan special forces who ended the day-long siege has already been named as Abdirahim Abdullahi, an ethnic Somali Kenyan national who was a top student and law graduate. Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, quoting unnamed intelligence reports, said the other three gunnies killed were also Kenyan and were believed to be from the port city of Mombasa and the far western district of Bungoma. "Identities will be confirmed once their fingerprints are matched," the Nation said, citing intelligence officials. There was no immediate response from Kenyan police to confirm the report. A $215,000 (200,000 euro) bounty has also been offered for alleged Shabaab commander Mohammed Mohamud, a former Kenyan teacher said to be the criminal mastermind behind the attack. The report comes amid concern at a string of measures Kenya has introduced to boost security that rights groups warn could harm innocent Somalis or hamper counter-terrorism efforts. Kenyan Vice-President William Ruto said last week that "the way America changed after 9/11 is the way Kenya will change after Garissa". Measures include demands for the world's largest refugee camp complex at Dadaab to be shut and the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis by July, which the U.N. warns would have "extreme humanitarian and practical consequences" and would violate international law. Other actions include the freezing of the money transfers that are a lifeline for many in Somalia, the suspension of two Moslem civil rights groups and a proposed 700-kilometer (435-mile) security fence between Kenya and Somalia. After the attack, Kenyatta warned that the forces of Evil were "deeply embedded" inside Kenya, not just Somalia.
The government has given no details of the construction, cost or how long it will take to complete the fence, which would separate Kenya's northeastern ethnic Somali region from Somalia itself. Nairobi has also frozen key money transfer companies vital for impoverished Somalia, sparking warnings by aid agencies that the move will hit the poorest hardest. It has also suspended two key Kenyan Moslem civil society organizations for suspected Shabaab links, which rights groups say will damage efforts to counter extremism. While the Shabaab emerged as a Somali Islamist group in 2006 in Mogadishu, they have recruited across the wider region. The group has carried out a string of Dire Revenge attacks in neighboring countries, notably Kenya and Uganda, in response to their participation in the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force fighting them in Somalia. Following the attack the Shabaab warned of a "long, gruesome war" unless Nairobi withdraws its troops from Somalia, saying the gunnies carried out the Garissa attack in Dire Revenge for the "systematic persecution of the Moslems in Kenya". | |
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