Garissa University Attack: the deadliest attack in Kenya

Thursday 2nd April. One university. 148 dead. 79 injured. 5 gunmen. One debate: why are there so few reactions around the world?

First things first, the basis: what happened on that day? Around 5:30am that morning, a group of al-Shabaab militants shot two security guards at the entrance of Garissa University, stormed onto the campus and started to shoot randomly around the dormitories. They then managed to get into one of the dormitories where they took students hostage. They released Muslims but kept all Christians captive. During the siege, a spokesman for Al-Shabaab told BBC "We've killed many people; Kenyans will be shocked when they go inside."

After 15 hour siege, four gunmen were killed putting an end to the hostage kidnapping; but the death toll is extremely alarming: 142 students were killed, along with 3 soldiers and 3 police officers.

Who are Al-Shabaab? “Al-Shabaab” is a jihadist group, allied to Al Qaeda, which bring together around 9 000 militants to try to install a strict Islamic state in Somalia, where it is based. They were pushed out of key cities and towns of Somalia in 2012 by the African Union, but they remain extremely dominant and a real threat in the rural areas of the country.

But then why are they attacking in Kenya? “Take your troops out or prepare for a long-lasting war, blood, destruction and evacuation,” that is what Ahmed Godane, leader of Al-Shabaab, warned. Indeed, the group said that their actions were revenge for the presence of Kenyan soldiers on Somali’s ground and for the mistreatment of Muslims in Kenya.

Al Shabaab have been responsible for numerous other attacks in Kenya. This week’s has been the bloodiest, but their attack on Nairobi’s (Capital of Kenya) Westgate shopping centre 2 years ago was the second biggest with 67 victims. Both these attacks were targeting Christians, as they were separated from the Muslim hostages during the attack in the University, and and any individual who could not recite verses from the Koran were killed at Westgate were killed.

Since the attack, people got indignant on social medias concerning the lack of reactions. Indeed a lot of them argue that the media were treating the attack as a simple news story, not as a deadly terrorist attack against a country. They also defend that the impact would be far more severe if the attack had been perpetuated in a Western Country. European media are especially criticised for their front pages concerning the crash of the A320, and not the terrorist attack.

I personally don’t understand, why the impact is lesser, I agree that it happened far away, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not important. 148 human beings died in that university, and it doesn’t matter that the University is in Kenya, and not in Europe or in the US; they are still people, like you and me; innocent people that were killed for an ideology.

Some comments on the attack also raised my attention, when you compare with the Paris attack earlier this year, there were no pictures of the victims, no pictures of the families, and it seemed unnecessary to show some. However, a number of people argue that, in this case, the media have to show pictures of dead bodies, and crying families to get the public’s attention. The facts are preseny: 148 people died that day and pictures of the victims should not be necessary to invoke a reaction by the media. We praise unity and solidarity in the world, but if something happens and if it’s too far away from us, we look away? I agree there might not be much that we can do because of the distance, but it does not mean that the attack shouldn't be acknowledged.

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