The late Ruhila Adatia-Sood posted this Instagram photo with two fans moments before the shooting started.
On Saturday, September 21, 2013, a group of armed bandits attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi killing 68 people, with 175 others injured not counting those who have been treated and discharged.
The Westgate mall is one of the most renowned and luxurious malls in Nairobi, an
impressive five-story building where people go to watch movies, and buy
all sorts of things. It is usually crowded especially on Saturdays
making the attack quite successful.
An Islamic militant group based in Somalia, the ‘al-Shabaab’
have taken responsibility for the attack claiming that the attack is a
revenge for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia which began nearly
two years ago.
The group claimed that a 24-year-old man from London was one of the attackers. The al-Shabaab Twitter account published a list of six people who took part in the attack before it was suspended.
Some sources also hinted that the al-Shabaab’s leader, Ali Mohamoud Rage sent messages to some media houses to notify them of more attacks from the group until Kenya pulls her military out of Somalia.
Fred Ngoga Gateretse, an official
with the African union who was also an eyewitness described the 10-15
gunmen as ‘very experienced and good shooters’. Witnesses said the
attackers had AK-47 rifles and wore ammunition belts.
Popular radio host Ruhila Adatia-Sood
was killed in the shooting. Ruhila is the East FM Drive presenter and
host of entertainment news on Kiss TV- E-News, Kiss 100 and X-FM. She
was at the parking lot of the mall hosting a cooking competition for a Sungold Sunrice Superchef show.
Ruhila had been posting pictures on her
Instagram right before the shooting started. She is reported to have
been pregnant with her first child.
Ghanaian poet and former professor at the University of Ghana, Kofi Awoonor was also killed while his son was injured.
The Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta through the cabinet secretary for the interior Joseph Ole Lenku had assured ‘Overnight
more people were evacuated from the mall but a number still remain. The
government out of its way to make sure we do not lose lives’. Kenyatta lost close relatives in the attack.
Investigations to the killings are still on-going.
Check below photos gathered from the shooting…
A soldier directs people up stairs inside the Westgate shopping mall after the shootout …
Women
carrying children run for safety after al Shabaab terrorists stormed
Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya armed with guns and grenades
Kenyan
paramilitary officers walk towards a small shopping arcade adjacent to
the Westgate shopping mall where the hostage situation continues in
Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday
An image from AFP TV shows military forces taking position inside the shopping mall
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