Kenyan University Officials: College to be ‘Closed Indefinitely’
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 3 (UPI) — One day after armed militants stormed eastern Kenya’s Garissa University College and killed nearly 150 students, families of the victims began the grim task of identifying the bodies while school leaders announced the college will be “closed indefinitely.”
Some bodies from the shooting are being flown to Nairobi Friday in an effort to ease the load on the local mortuary. Nearly 80 injured victims remain hospitalized and hundreds of students who were unharmed in the early morning attack are being evacuated from the school grounds. It’s considered the worst attack on Kenya since the U.S. embassy bombing in 1998, when hundreds were killed in coordinated truck bombings.
Thursday, four militants from the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab group burst into the university and roved from dorm to dorm, looking for Christian students for execution. Students described a chaotic scene, barely fleeing from gunman. Many of the victims had been shot in the back of the head.
Al Shabaab said it was seeking Christian students among the Muslims at the school in an effort to conduct an “operation against the infidels.” The four gunman were later cornered and killed.
The Interior Ministry posted a “most wanted” notice for a man who is being called the “mastermind” behind the attack. They are looking for Mohamed Mohamud, who goes by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere, and are offering a reward of 20 million Kenyan shillings, about $215,000.
