GARISSA : Grieving relatives were today searching for news or the remains of their loved ones after Somalia’s Shebab Islamists massacred 147 in a university in northeastern Kenya.
The day-long siege of Garissa University was Kenya’s deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, and the bloodiest by Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
The Kenyan Government, however, vowed it would not be “intimidated”.
Survivors recounted how the masked gunmen taunted students before killing them, including forcing them to phone their parents to urge them to call for Kenyan troops to leave Somalia — before then still shooting them.
As the gunmen prowled the university rooms hunting down people to kill, some students smeared blood from their dead friends over their bodies to pretend they too had been shot.
“There were bodies everywhere in execution lines, we saw people whose heads had been blown off, bullet wounds everywhere, it was a grisly mess,” said Reuben Nyaora, an aid worker who helped the wounded.
The day-long siege ended with four gunmen killed in a hail of heavy gunfire, and one suspect reportedly arrested. At least 79 people were also wounded in the attack on the campus, which lies near the border with Somalia.
Today, a huge crowd of traumatised and shocked survivors and relatives of those killed or missing gathered at the university gate.
Visiting the scene of the carnage, Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery vowed that the country would not bow to terrorist threats.
“Kenya’s Government will not be intimidated by the terrorists who have made killing innocent people a way to humiliate the Government,” he told reporters, promising the Government will “fight back”.
“We shall win this war against our enemies.”
Hurling grenades and firing automatic rifles, the gunmen stormed the university at dawn as students were sleeping, shooting dead dozens before setting Muslims free and holding Christians and others hostage.
Just before darkness fell, Kenyan troops stormed a dormitory where the gunmen were holed up as blasts and fierce gunfire rang out.
Hundreds of students — many of whom escaped in little more than what they were sleeping in — spent yesterday night at nearby military barracks, where they were fed and given clothes. (AGENCIES)
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