Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, in which 67 people were killed in a 2013 attack by al-Shabab militants, has reopened.
Armed al-Shabab militants entered the mall in September 2013 and fired on shoppers, leading to a siege over four days.
About half the shops are opening again after an extensive refurbishment.
The reopening comes a week before President Barack Obama visits Nairobi – a sign, the city’s governor said, that the capital was safe.
“Exactly 22 months ago we had one of the saddest days in Kenyan history,” Governor Evans Kidero said.
Photo AFP/Getty Images
“As a nation we cried, we mourned, but Westgate is back.”
Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack in response to Kenya’s military operations in Somalia.
CCTV footage showing terrified shoppers fleeing the gunmen and cowering behind counters. Many were shot as the attackers walked down the aisles of a supermarket.
All four gunmen are believed to have died during the assault.
Parts of the mall were badly damaged by fire and remained off-limits as journalists toured the building earlier in the week. It is not clear if those sections are reopening.
Since the Westgate siege, al-Shabab has launched a number of high-profile attacks, including one on a university in Garissa, north-east Kenya, in which close to 150 people died in April.
Earlier this week, the State Department issued a travel warning to US citizens that extremists could target a summit in Nairobi in late July, which will be attended by Barack Obama.
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.
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.
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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