The New York Times
September 22, 2013
Siege at Kenyan Mall Continues as Death Toll Reaches 59
By NICHOLAS KULISH and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya — The deadly siege at a mall in Nairobi continued Sunday, as the Kenyan government struggled with the question of whether to storm the Shabab militant attackers still holed up inside or keep trying to free people trapped inside after more than 24 hours.
“I am aware that many have expressed impatience over the pace at which the situation is unfolding,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in an address to the nation on Sunday, “and while I empathize with your anxiety at seeing the matter concluded as quickly as possible, I ask also for understanding.”
Mr. Kenyatta said that more than 1,000 people had been rescued from the mall at the time of the attack, calling it “remarkable and encouraging.” But the death toll from the militant assault on the crowded Westgate mall the day before continued to rise, climbing to 59. Among them were Mr. Kenyatta’s nephew and his fiancée, he said in his speech.
“These are young, lovely people I personally knew and loved. Many of us have lost loved ones,” Mr. Kenyatta said. “Let us mourn them all as one nation and keep them always in remembrance and prayer.”
Joseph Ole Lenku, the cabinet secretary for the interior, said on Sunday that the number of wounded had risen to 175, though many had been treated and discharged. “Overnight more people were evacuated from the mall, but a number still remain,” he said. “The government will go out of its way to make sure we do not lose lives.”
A huge contingent of Kenyan security forces kept the mall cordoned off Sunday, but officials confirmed that many attackers — between 10 and 15, according to Mr. Lenku — were still inside and active, and that an uncertain number of bystanders remained trapped or in hiding.
The prospect of more violence was tangible, even as a deeply shaken public began to come to grips with the toll already inflicted.
The identities of several victims began to come out Sunday, and with it the public mourning of a national tragedy had begun. The local news media reported that a popular radio host was among those killed, as was an elderly poet and professor from Ghana.
The radio host, Ruhila Adatia-Sood, was in the parking lot of the Westgate mall where she was hosting a cooking competition, according to reports. She had posted several photos on her Instagram account before the attack.
Also among the dead was Kofi Awoonor, 78, a Ghanaian poet and former professor at the University of Ghana. He was also the former chairman of the Council of State.
As the morning wore on helicopters continued to circle above the mall and the sound of intermittent gunfire crackled. Medical personnel loaded a wounded member of the security forces dressed in camouflage into an ambulance in the garage of a nearby community complex.
The mall, called Westgate, is a symbol of Kenya’s rising prosperity, an impressive five-story building where Kenyans can buy expensive cups of frozen yogurt and plates of sushi. On Saturdays, it is especially crowded, and American officials have long warned that Nairobi’s malls were ripe targets for terrorists.
Fred Ngoga Gateretse, an official with the African Union, was having coffee at the ArtCaffe coffee shop on the ground floor around noon on Saturday when he heard two deafening blasts. He cowered on the floor and watched eight gunmen with scarves twisted over their faces firing at shoppers and then up at Kenyan police officers who were shooting down from a balcony as panicked shoppers dashed for cover. “Believe me, these guys were good shooters,” Mr. Gateretse said. “You could tell they were trained.”
Even as the fight continued into Sunday afternoon, with the attackers contained to the mall’s third floor, the Kenyan news media reported that one wounded gunman had been captured and died in a hospital. Several witnesses also said one of the attackers was a woman.
Several witnesses said the attackers had shouted for Muslims to run away while they picked off other shoppers, executing them one by one. The mall, one of Nairobi’s most luxurious, with glass elevators and some of the most expensive shops in town, is also popular with expatriates. It has served as the place for a power lunch, to catch a movie, to bring children for ice cream.
Four Americans were believed to have been injured in the attack, American officials said, and none were reported killed. Secretary of State John Kerry, who called the attack “a heartbreaking reminder that there exists unspeakable evil in our world,” said the wife of a local employee of the American government was among the dead. Two Canadians, one of them a diplomat based in Nairobi, and two French citizens were killed, their governments said.
Ilana Stein, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the attack initially took place near the ArtCaffe, an Israeli-owned coffee shop and bakery popular with foreigners that is one of 80 businesses in the mall. Ms. Stein said that one Israeli had been lightly injured, that three others had escaped unharmed and that Israelis had not been specifically targeted. “This time, the story is not about Israel,” Ms. Stein said.
On Sunday, Israeli officials denied reports that the country’s security services had gotten involved in the standoff in Nairobi. But a report on the news site Ynet cited a senior Israeli security source as saying that Israeli “consultants” had been helping the Kenyans “formulate a negotiation strategy to resolve the crisis.”
A confidential United Nations security report on Saturday described the mall attack as “a complex, two-pronged assault” with two squads of gunmen dashing into the mall from different floors at the same time and opening fire.
The Shabab, an Islamist militant group based in Somalia, took responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia, which began nearly two years ago. “Kenya will not get peace unless they pull their military out of Somalia,” said Ali Mohamoud Rage, the Shabab’s spokesman, in a radio address. The Shabab also sent out a barrage of buoyant Twitter messages, bragging about the prowess of their fighters before Twitter abruptly suspended the account late Saturday. Later, a new one was set up.
Mr. Kenyatta called the terrorists cowards and said Kenya would remain “as brave and invincible as the lions on our coat of arms.” He also sounded a somber note, pleading with Kenyans to give blood, and said he had lost “very close family members in this attack,” though he did not specify further.
Witnesses described attackers using AK-47 and G-3 assault rifles and throwing grenades.
Vivian Atieno, 26, who works on the first floor of the mall, described “intense shooting,” starting around 11 a.m., before she escaped through a fire exit.
Haron Mwachia, 20, a cleaner at the mall, said he had survived by climbing over a wall. “I heard several gunshots and managed to run away,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Hundreds of relatives and friends of the victims of the attack journeyed to various hospitals around the city that were treating the wounded, trying to ascertain the fate of their loved ones.
At the MP Shah Hospital, a few miles away from the mall, distressed relatives milled around a tent erected for them outside the hospital as volunteers worked around the clock to provide necessary assistance.
Ruth Nyambura, 26, whose uncle worked at the Nakumatt Supermarket in Westgate at the time of the attack, said she was terrified.
“I have come along with my family just to find out how he’s doing. He was shot in the head, suffered severe wounds on his one of his eyes and his arms,” said Ms. Nyambura. “He was operated yesterday and we’ve come to see him again. We are being told to wait because the queue is too long.”
Kenya serves as the economic engine of East Africa, and while it has been mostly spared the violence and turmoil of many of its neighbors, it has had other terrorist attacks. In 1998, Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people in an enormous truck bombing that nearly leveled the American Embassy in downtown Nairobi, while simultaneously attacking the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Islamist terrorists also struck an Israeli-owned hotel on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast in 2002 and fired missiles at an Israeli airliner.
More recently, the Shabab have put Kenya in its cross hairs, especially after Kenya sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2011 to chase the Shabab away from its borders and then kept those troops there as part of a larger African Union mission to pacify Somalia. The Shabab have attacked churches in eastern Kenya, mosques in Nairobi and government outposts along the Kenya-Somalia border.
But this was the boldest attack yet. Within minutes, as the gunmen opened fire with assault rifles, Westgate was plunged into mayhem and carnage. People ran out screaming, and victims soaking in their own blood were wheeled out in shopping carts. Bodies were still sprawled on the mall’s front steps hours afterward, and woozy shoppers continued to emerge from the stores where they had been hiding.
“This is such a shock,” said Preeyam Sehmi, an artist, as she stumbled out of the mall, past a phalanx of Kenyan soldiers, after five hours of hiding. “Westgate was such a social place.”
Before its Twitter account was shut down, the Shabab sent out a message, saying the fighters in the mall would never give up.
“There will be no negotiations whatsoever at #Westgate,” the message said.
The Shabab, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, used to control large parts of Somalia, imposing a harsh and often brutal version of Islam in their territory. They have beheaded civilians and buried teenage girls up to their necks in sand and stoned them to death. But in the past two years, the African Union forces, including the Kenyans, have pushed the Shabab out of most of their strongholds. The worry now, current and former American officials said Saturday, is that this attack could be the start of a comeback.
“I think this is just the beginning,” said Rudy Atallah, the former director of African counterterrorism for the Pentagon. “An attack like this gives them the capability to recruit, it shows off their abilities, and it demonstrates to Al Qaeda central that they are not dead.”
Reporting was contributed by Reuben Kyama and Tyler Hicks from Nairobi; Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; Mark Mazzetti from Washington; and Mohamed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Israeli-forces-enter-Nairobi-mall-to-end-carnage-Report/articleshow/22894079.cms
Israeli forces enter Nairobi mall to end carnage: Report
AFP | Sep 22, 2013, 05.06 PM IST
NAIROBI: Israeli forces have joined Kenyan efforts to end a deadly siege by Somali militants at a Nairobi shopping mall, a security source told AFP Sunday.
"The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured," the source told AFP on condition he not be named.
At least 59 people have been confirmed killed in the attack by Somali militants on an upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi, a government minister said on Sunday, as Kenyan troops battled gunmen still holding an unknown number of hostages.
Heavy gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the 24-hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.
Among the dead was renowned Ghanaian poet and statesmen Kofi Awoonor. Somalia's al-Qaida-inspired al-Shabaab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.
Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said 59 people were confirmed dead. "A number of attackers are still in the building, and range between 10 to 15 gunmen," he said in a statement. "We believe there are some innocent people in the building, that is why the operation is delicate."
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had lost family members in the attack.
"Let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime," he vowed.
The Westgate mall is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates, and was packed with around 1,000 shoppers when the gunmen marched in at midday Saturday, tossed grenades and sprayed automatic gunfire at terrified people.
Security agencies have long feared that the shopping centre could be targeted by al-Qaida-linked groups.
The attack was the worst in Nairobi since an al-Qaida bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998.
After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun battles, security sources said police and soldiers had finally "pinned down" the gunmen. The Kenyan Red Cross appealed for blood donations and authorities urged residents to steer clear of the area.
"We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors," said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna.
"We still do not know the number of hostages nor the attackers but we hope to bring this to an end today."
One teenage survivor recounted to AFP how he played dead to avoid being killed.
"I heard screams and gunshots all over the place. I got scared. I tried to run down the stairs and saw someone running towards the top, I ran back and hid behind one of the cars," 18-year-old Umar Ahmed said.
In the hours after the attack began, shocked people of all ages and races could be seen running from the mall, some clutching babies, while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets.
"They spoke something that seemed like Arabic or Somali," said a man who escaped the mall and gave his name only as Jay. "I saw people being executed after being asked to say something."
Kenyan police, troops and special forces then moved in and went shop-to-shop inside the shopping centre. Foreign security officials — from Israel, the United States and Britain — were also seen at the complex.
An AFPTV reporter said she saw at least 20 people rescued from a toy shop, some of them children taken away on stretchers.
Kenneth Kerich, who was shopping when the attack happened, described scenes of utter panic.
"I suddenly heard gunshots and saw everyone running around so we lied down. I saw two people who were lying down and bleeding, I think they were hit by bullets," he said.
"The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. I saw at least 50 people shot," mall employee Sudjar Singh told AFP.
Ghanaian poet Awoonor, 78, who was once his country's representative to the United Nations, was killed while shopping with his son, who was injured in the attack, Ghanaian officials said.
A spokesman for Shabaab said the attack was retaliation for Kenya's nearly two-year-old military presence in war-torn Somalia in support of the internationally backed Mogadishu government.
"We have warned Kenya of that attack but it ignored (us), still forcefully holding our lands ... while killing our innocent civilians," Shabaab spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.
"If you want Kenya in peace, it will not happen as long as your boys are in our lands."
The group also issued a string of statements via Twitter, one of them claiming that Muslims in the centre had been "escorted out by the Mujahideen before beginning the attack".
Police at the scene said a suspect wounded in the firefight had been detained and taken to hospital under armed guard, and later died of his injuries.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was "appalled by the brutal attack against innocent citizens" and sent her "sincere condolences to those who have lost family, friends and loved ones".
Paris confirmed that two French citizens were among those killed in what it condemned as a "cowardly" attack. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said two Canadians, one of them a diplomat, were among the dead, while official Chinese news agency Xinhua said one Chinese woman was killed and her child wounded.
Two Indians and a South Korean were also among the dead. The United States said its citizens were reportedly among those injured by the "despicable" act while British Foreign Secretary William Hague said there were "undoubtedly British nationals caught up in this so we should be ready for that".
The UN security council condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms".
Renowned Ghanaian poet and statesman killed
Renowned Ghanaian poet and statesman Kofi Awoonor, 78, was among dead, Ghana's president said Sunday.
John Dramani Mahama said in a statement: "I am shocked to hear the death of Prof Kofi Awoonor in Nairobi mall terrorist attack. Such a sad twist of fate ..."
Awoonor was killed while shopping with his son in the mall, Ghana's deputy information minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu said.
His son was injured and has been discharged from the hospital, Ofosu said. Awoonor had been due to appear at the Storymoja Hay literary festival in Nairobi on Saturday.
Awoonor was Ghana's representative to the United Nations under the presidency of Jerry Rawlings from 1990 to 1994, and was also president of the Council of State, an advisory body to the president. He stepped down from that role earlier this year.
He was a renowned writer, most notably for his poetry inspired by the oral tradition of the Ewe people, to which he belonged.
Much of his best work was published in Ghana's immediate post-independence period, part of which he spent in exile after the first president Kwame Nkrumah, whom Awoonor was close to, was overthrown in a coup.
His books included "Rediscovery and Other Poems," published in 1964. Awoonor returned to Ghana in 1975 and was later arrested and tried over his suspected involvement in a coup, according to a biography from the US-based Poetry Foundation.
He was released after 10 months, and the foundation said his imprisonment influenced his book "The House by the Sea".
During his time in the United States in the early 1970s, Awoonor was chairman of the department of comparative literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
He was also Ghana's ambassador to Brazil and Cuba in the 1980s, the foundation said.
Received on Sun Sep 22 2013 - 12:11:25 EDT