Brussels, 23/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On behalf of the European Union, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton has said she is appalled at the terrorist attack by the Somali Islamists al-Shabab in a shopping centre in Kenya on Saturday 21 September.
“I am appalled by the brutal attack on innocent citizens at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi on Saturday. I send my sincere condolences to those who have lost family, friends and loved ones, and our sympathy to those injured and all affected by the events”, Ashton stated on Saturday. She gave assurances that the European Union offers its full support to the Kenyan authorities in dealing with the situation.
At midday on Monday, Kenyan police forces were still trying to gain control over the dozen or so terrorists occupying the shopping centre. The terrorists were refusing to negotiate and threatening to kill the hostages.
The gun attack, which the Islamists say they carried out, left 69 dead including foreign nationals (particularly from the UK and France), and left nearly 200 wounded, according to the official figure - a figure that looked set to increase.
The terrorist attack came just a few days after the success of the international conference for a New Deal with Somalia - a conference jointly chaired by the Somali government and the EU (see EUROPE 10922) - and dampens the hope that dissension between al-Shabab might destroy this group of Islamists, which is close to al-Quaeda, from within. Al-Shabab particularly criticises Kenya for contributing troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has said that he will not give in to the blackmail. (AN/transl.fl)