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Kenyan fighter jets have targeted al-Shabab camps in neighboring Somalia in response to Garissa University attack.
The warplanes had bombed two camps in Gondodowe and Ismail, both in the Gedo region, used by al-Shabab to cross into Kenya, military sources say.
This is Kenya’s first response to an al-Shabab assault which left 148 people dead at Garissa University last week.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had vowed to respond to the attack “in the severest way possible”.
Al-Shabab said the assault in Garissa, which is 120 miles from the Somali border, was revenge for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight alongside African Union peacekeepers against the group.
The Islamist group, which at one point controlled most of Somalia, has lost swaths of territory in recent years but diplomats have repeatedly warned this has not diminished its ability to stage guerrilla-style attacks at home and abroad.
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Kenya has declared three days of national mourning for the 148 victims of Garissa University attack by militant group al-Shabab.
Easter ceremonies will be held to remember those who died in Thursday’s attack on Garissa University campus, and flags are expected to fly at half-mast.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to respond to the attack “in the severest ways possible”.
Sunni Islam’s most respected seat of learning, Cairo’s al-Azhar University, has also condemned the attack.
The Kenyan Red Cross says that so far 54 of the victims have been identified by relatives at a morgue in the capital, Nairobi.
Buses are transporting more than 600 students and about 50 staff who survived the attacks to their hometowns.
Many survivors have been reunited with their families at Nairobi’s Nyayo National Stadium which has been set up as a disaster centre.
Almost all of the 148 killed were students and another 79 people were injured.
Four gunmen were killed, and officials say they are holding five people for questioning – one of whom is believed to be a university security guard.
Both Christians and Muslims have denounced the attack. On April 5, Sunni Islam’s most respected seat of learning, Cairo’s al-Azhar University, said it condemned the “terrorist attack”.
Pope Francis is expected to use his traditional Easter Sunday message to describe the students as contemporary Christian martyrs.
In Kenya, people took the streets to protest the killings and reject the idea that al-Shabab had succeeded in dividing the country.
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Five suspects have been detained in Kenya over the al-Shabab attack on Garissa University campus on April 2 which left almost 150 people dead, officials say.
Some of the suspects were arrested while trying to flee to neighboring Somalia, the internal security ministry said.
At least 148 people – mostly students – were killed when gunmen attacked a university campus in Garissa.
Al-Shabab has since pledged a “long, gruesome war” against Kenya.
The militant group said its attacks were in retaliation for acts by Kenya’s security forces, which are part of the African Union’s mission in Somalia against al-Shabab.
Photo AP
In Garissa, a survivor has emerged from hiding more than two days after the assault was unleashed.
The 19-year-old girl was found unhurt in a cupboard on April 4, but security officials had to bring in a teacher to convince her that it was safe to come out.
She told reporters that she drank body lotion when she felt hungry.
Four other people were found alive on the campus on April 3, including two suspects. One was said to be a Tanzanian national with no known links to the university.
While many of the survivors spoke to the media, little is known so far about those who were killed.
Their bodies have been flown to Nairobi for identification, as local mortuaries have been unable to cope, and many of the students killed came from other parts of Kenya.
There has been criticism in Garissa, which is 100 miles from the Somali border, at how the security services dealt with the attack.
Only two guards were on duty at the time of the assault, despite official warnings that an attack on an institution of higher learning was likely.
One survivor said the students had raised security issues late last year. Another said the gunmen appeared to know the site well.
In an address to the nation after the attack, President Uhuru Kenyatta said he had instructed the police chief to speed up the training of 10,000 recruits, because Kenya had “suffered unnecessarily” because of a shortage of security personnel.
Police in neighboring Uganda say they have received information suggesting a similar attack is being planned there.
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At least 147 people have been killed in an attack by al-Shabab Islamist militants on Garissa University campus in north-eastern Kenya, Kenyan government officials say.
The operation to secure the Garissa University College campus was now over, with all four attackers killed, they added.
Officials said 587 students had been evacuated, 79 of whom were injured.
An overnight curfew is being implemented in parts of Kenya.
Four counties near the Kenya-Somalia border, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera and Tana River, would have dusk-to-dawn curfews imposed, disaster management officials said.
Photo Reuters
Nine critically injured students were airlifted to the capital Nairobi for treatment, they added.
Each student had been accounted for by the end of the evacuation.
Masked gunmen stormed the university early on Thursday morning and took hostages.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called a “terrorist attack” and said the UN was ready to help Kenya “prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism”.
The US said it was offering Nairobi assistance to take on al-Shabab and would continue to work with others in the region to take on the group.
The Kenyan government has named Mohamed Kuno, a high-ranking al-Shabab official, as the mastermind of the attack.
Mohamed Kuno was headmaster at an Islamic school in Garissa before he quit in 2007.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta offered his condolences to families of the victims and ordered “urgent steps” to ensure police recruits could begin training immediately.
“We have suffered unnecessarily due to shortage of security personnel,” Uhuru Kenyatta said.
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Masked gunmen have stormed Kenya’s Garissa University College near the Somali border, killing at least two people and injuring about 30.
Troops have surrounded the university and are engaging the attackers.
Witnesses spoke of the gunmen firing indiscriminately and there are fears the casualty toll could rise.
It is not clear who is behind the attack, but Somali al-Shabab militants have regularly targeted Kenya.
Garissa and other border areas have been regularly attacked.
Some five masked gunmen are said to have stormed the university. There are reports that hostages have been taken.
Kenyan police said the gunmen shot guards at the main gate at about 05:30 local time.
Nearby policemen then engaged in a fierce exchange of fire and the gunmen escaped into the university buildings.
Security forces were now trying to “flush them out”, a police statement said. It urged people to stay away from the area.
Two guards were confirmed killed at the main university gate, with two policemen and a student among the injured. But eyewitnesses spoke of many casualties inside the building.
The gunmen reportedly ordered students to lie down on the floor, but at least 27 are known to have escaped and are at a military facility.
Kenyan Red Cross spokeswoman Arnolda Shiundu said there were about 30 casualties, four of whom were critical.
Three people – two soldiers and a civilian – had been airlifted to the capital, Nairobi, Arnolda Shiundu said.
The university opened in 2011 and is the only place of higher education in the region. It has some 900 students, 700 of them from other parts of Kenya.
Garissa, 90 miles from the border with Somalia, has a large population of Kenyan Somalis.
Al-Shabab has carried out a number of attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia to help fight the militant group there.
The deadliest attack targeted the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in September 2013, when 67 people were killed.
Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia and is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and Western Europe.
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