KENYA: Wounded security officials are being taken away from an upscale Nairobi mall as a deadly stand-off continues after gunmen stormed the building, killing at least 59 people

Record ID: 353938

  • Title: KENYA: Wounded security officials are being taken away from an upscale Nairobi mall as a deadly stand-off continues after gunmen stormed the building, killing at least 59 people
  • Date: 22nd September 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF NAIROBI RESIDENTS BROWSING A SELECTION OF KENYAN MORNING NEWSPAPERS' FRONT PAGES
  • Embargoed: 7th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVAA2KLSFNLPK7XZ8C7HQJTS4S7Y
  • Story Text: The death toll from a deadly gunmen attack on an upscale shopping mall in Kenya has risen to 59, a government minister said on Sunday (September 22).
    There were still a number of attackers in the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said.
    Kenya was doing everything to make sure other people in the building can come out safely, he said. The government believed there were 10 to 15 attackers, Lenku also said.
    A number of wounded security personnel were being taken from the scene in ambulances earlier on Sunday.
    Kenyan Sunday morning newspapers reflected shock at the assault: "Day of Terror" was the headline in one, the Standard on Sunday.

    "We have been fighting terrorism for quite some time, but as of now we are now in fear because going to a place where you get to know so many people, it is so dangerous, because you will not know who is who, because they seem to be mingling in between us," Nairobi resident Michael Oduor reflected.
    The Somali Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for Saturday's (September 21) gun attack on the mall, which is frequented by Westerners and Kenyans.
    Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and is battling Kenyan and other African peacekeepers in Somalia, had repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of the Horn of Africa country.
    The assault was the biggest single attack in Kenya since al Qaeda's East Africa cell bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing more than 200 people.
    Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, facing his first major security challenge since his election in March.
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