50 killed watching World Cup match
Print Edition
AT least 50 people were killed when gunmen in two minibuses sped into a town on Kenya’s coast, shooting soccer fans watching a World Cup match in a television hall and targeting two hotels, a police post and a bank.
Police said Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group was most likely to blame for Sunday night’s assault on Mpeketoni, which lies on the Indian Ocean coastline that runs north from Kenya’s main port of Mombasa to the Somali border.
Kenya’s interior minister referred to the attackers as “bandits” and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault, the latest in a spate of gun and bomb attacks in recent months that have hurt the struggling tourist industry.
Kenya, which has blamed al Shabaab for previous attacks, had said it would be on alert during the World Cup to ensure public showings of matches were safe.
“The attackers were so many and were all armed with guns. They entered the video hall where we were watching a World Cup match and shot indiscriminately at us,” Meshack Kimani said. “They targeted only men but I was lucky. I escaped by hiding behind the door.”
The attack could heighten worries in other African nations such as Nigeria, which is battling the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, that bars and other venues drawing crowds by hosting World Cup match screenings could become targets.
Sunday’s assault is the worst in Kenya since last September when al Shabaab gunmen attacked Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, leaving 67 people dead.
Peacekeeping force
After Westgate, al Shabaab warned of more attacks, saying they were determined to drive Kenyan troops out of Somalia.
Kenya, whose soldiers are deployed as part of an African peacekeeping force battling militants, says it won’t pull out.
The gunmen raced into Mpeketoni in two minibuses and attacked their targets with guns and at least one explosive device. The government said they also raided the nearby settlement of Kibaoni.
Witnesses said there were about 30 gunmen. A police officer said all the victims were men. No women or children were killed.
“After they attacked the area, they went round the town in the vehicles shooting in the air and chanting slogans in the Somali language,” said 28-year-old Issah Birido, who survived the Mpeketoni attack by climbing a tree, hidden by the darkness.
He said two cousins were killed and their homes set on fire. Some 20 buildings were gutted and the charred wreckage of more than 20 vehicles littered the streets.
Kenya Red Cross said the death toll was at least 50, but said it could rise.
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the security forces would find the perpetrators, whom he called “bandits” and “criminals,” making no reference to al Shabaab.
Police said no arrests had yet been made and said an investigation was under way to identify the perpetrators.
“Right now it is still premature to say who is behind the attack until investigations are done, but the initial suspicion is al Shabaab,” Mwenda Njoka, spokesman for Kenya’s internal security, said.
A government agency, Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre, said the attack had been blamed on al Shabaab.
Al Shabaab bombed crowds watching World Cup matches in Ugandan capital Kampala in 2010, killing 77 people. Uganda also has troops in Somalia.
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