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A GATHERING WILL take place at the Embassy of Kenya on Elgin Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin at 2pm today to show solidarity with Kenyan people after yesterday’s shocking massacre.
147 people were killed after gunmen staged a pre-dawn attack on a university in the town of Garissa. Students were sleeping at the time of the attack.
AP reported that the extremists targeted a site where Christians had gone to pray. One student told AP that Christians were targeted during the incident.
The siege ended after four gunmen were killed by gunfire. One suspect was reportedly arrested. Survivors and relatives have been gathering at the university, searching for information.
Shehab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said the killings were in revenge for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia as part of the African Union’s force supporting the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, AFP reports.
The country’s government said it would not be “intimidated” by the attacks.
Pools of blood
Survivors told AFP that there were “piles of bodies and pools of blood running down the corridors”.
They also described how laughing gunmen taunted their victims amid scenes of total carnage.
Salias Omosa, an 20-year-old education student, said the victims were woken up at gunpoint, and Muslims and non-Muslims picked out by “how they were dressed”:
‘We don’t fear death, this will be a good Easter holiday for us,’ the attackers were shouting in Swahili, then shooting their guns.
Omosa managed to escape amid the carnage at Garissa University, after seeing two of his friends executed by the Al-Qaeda-linked attackers, who he said were wearing masks and military-style uniforms.
“I have seen many things, but nothing like that,” said Reuben Nyaora, a clinical officer working for the aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC).
There were bodies everywhere in execution lines, we saw people whose heads had been blown off, bullet wounds everywhere, it was a grisly mess.
He said that there were soldiers being shot in front of them.
Then when we went into the halls, it was too horrible, too awful to imagine, and yet we saw it.
Everyone seemed dead, but then as we talked, some students who had been hidden for hours came out – some from wardrobes, others from the ceiling, and then others who had lain down with the dead, covered in blood, hidden among their friends who had been killed.
Amuna Geoffreys, a second year teaching student, was at a Christian prayer meeting when the shooting began, running to hide in a bush. But he could hear the chilling threats of the gunmen talking to colleagues just inside through a window.
As Geoffreys lay in terrified silence, the gunmen inside made his friends call their parents, to blame their imminent deaths on President Uhuru Kenyatta for having Kenyan troops in Somalia fighting the Shebab.
The killers demanded people to call home and then say: We are dying, because Uhuru has remained defiant to stay in Somalia’.
After they called their parents, there were shots, and then silence.
Counting the cost
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its medical team is providing support to the Kenyan Ministry of Health at Garissa Hospital.
MSF is treating survivors of the attack suffering from gunshot and blast wounds, as well people who received cuts from shattered glass during their escape.
Charles Gaudry, Head of Mission for MSF in Kenya said:
So far, [the team] have treated more than 70 wounded patients. They are helping with triage, providing emergency care, and are supporting the surgical ward.
The MSF team consists of one doctor, three nurses, five clinical officers, one operating theatre nurse and two logisticians.
Since this morning, MSF has also been providing medical care at Garissa airport, to where hundreds of students were evacuated and spent the night. MSF is also distributing water and food.
The students are expected to be transported to Nairobi in the coming hours by the Kenyan authorities, said MSF.
“The situation is extremely difficult, and the students are in a lot of shock,” said Dr Bashir Abdiweli, who is coordinating MSF’s response in Garissa.
We are mainly treating injuries sustained when they escaped the site. A few were referred to the hospital, and we are referring many others for post traumatic counselling.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has condemned in a telegram the “senseless brutality” of the incident.
- Additional reporting AFP
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Anyone who says the usual nonsense about building it around the M50 clearly doesn’t drive on the M50 regularly.
Dave, I hear the M50 is quiet between 3am and 4am. I personally think they’re fibbing.
In the event of an emergency id be hooring up the hard shoulder and stopping for nobody. Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. :-)
Dave this is a maternity hospital who services South Dublin. It’s a perfect location.
@Dave Harris: more then 2/3rds ot the poulation live outside of dublin, it;s the national childrens hospital not the dublin childrens hospital
It is neither of those things, they are talking about the national MATERNITY hospital….
Serious joke yet again. Why the likes of Blanchardstown and Tallaght hospitals were,’t given preference for the maternity and childrens hospitals is beyond me. They have more than adequit land and travel facilitys.
Can’t fathom that either. Surely cheaper land and far easier to travel to and park the further from Dublin. Bad enough for a couple of births, but a Children’s hospital will have many repeat visitors per family.
Because the high flyers who run these hospitals don’t live in Tallaght or Blanchardstown that’s why.
I agree, it should have been moved to the end of my street. Or better still they should build one at the end of everyone’s street
Great that’s just around the corner from my house, better start knocking the wife up
The land is owned by Vincents what you on about
@viking – why would it move to Blanchardstown!? It provides maternity services for Dublin South East and East Wicklow. Are you really that stupid?
The Rotunda Hospital is due to move to Blanchardstown
@The Viking: Not the maternity or children’s hospital, a hospital. there will be more. Blanch and tallaght will get theirs, just not this time.
Meanwhile you propose a stripping out of the city centre. coring the heart and installing stand alone drive through only monstrosities as far from the centre as possible.
How far out do you need to live before you can stop being ashamed of being a Dub?
@The Viking:, there’s more to a hospital than just parking and roads. Blanch was ruled out as a collocation site for the children’s hospital because it’s *not as good medically*. Maybe it’s just me but the quality and experience of the doctors and nursing staff beat parking and traffic considerations any day.
A Dub ? … The clue is in the name : National. As in, everywhere outside Dublin as well. There’s more to Ireland than bloody coddle & chips. …
@Platypus Parcel: is this the national childrens hospital or the south dublin childrens hospital ? im sure youre not aware but theres a whole world outside south dublin
It’s just called that, the rotunda I’d due to move to blanch and the combe to James or tallaght. People getting very hot up when they clearly don’t understand how the maternity hospitals work, and also that this article is not about the children’s hospital!!
Co-location is no longer considered necessary by international standards. Maybe the children’s hospital location should now be reconsidered
Shame they couldn’t refurbish holles st. It’s a wonderful old building full of character that will probably be sold off to one of the law firms.
Character doesn’t make a good hospital…
A wonderful old building. That’s the very reason why they are moving.
In saying that myself ant my daughter were both born in the same room. She was born the day after my 30th.
Good post code though
National Maternity Hospital Board meetings will now officially start with a decade of the rosary…
Archbishop of Dublin is already their patron.
@Liam Kennedy: Cos bishops know all about making babies…thought they banished him to south america?
@Get Lost Eircodes: I was also under the impression that the board of St Vincent’s was far more conservative than HS and potentially a source of problems if/when more liberal policies are to be adopted.
Will it actually be built, opened and made operational?
This is a great result for the mothers-to-be in the catchment of the NMH. The co-location with SVUH guarantees better patient outcomes for emergency cases, as well as better transport options for routine cases.
The “National Maternity Hospital” is a somewhat inflated title. It is the largest maternity hospital in the State but its intended catchment is only intended to be south of the Liffey.
The proposed National Children’s Hospital is just that, however, and should be located in the most optimal location to allow accessibility to children (and their parents) from the entire country. It should also be collocates with a general hospital with the necessary skills mix. St. James’s Hospital probably meets the latter criteria, it doesn’t in any way meet the former. In fact, I’d go so far to say St. James’s should be relocated out westward closer to the M50. There is still a requirement within the City centre for acute and emergency care, perhaps these functions could remain within the city in a satellite hospital, but the current location for St. James’s is not fit for purpose as a general hospital, let alone a Children’s Hospital.
what is the point of having a national maternity hospital. We have 19 maternity hospitals in Ireland all doing a great job.
I don’t believe all 19 are doing a great job.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/safety-statements-for-19-maternity-units-published-385219.html
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