Sunday, March 11, 2012

Nairobi Grenade Blast

Last night, there was a grenade attack at a bus station in Nairobi. At least 4 were killed and many others were sent to hospital.


In this photo (which I borrowed from 'The Standard' online), victims from the attack are tended to by nurses and good samaritans (more on this below) at Kenyatta National Hospital.

Although I live a great distance from North-Eastern Kenya (where Somalia borders with Kenya), and even a little ways away from where last nights attack took place, it feels strange to have something so serious happen so (relatively) close to home.

It is suspected that Al-Shabaab (or supporters of Al-Shabaab) carried out the attack.



Last year, the Kenyan government sent troops into Somalia because (in short) aid workers and tourists up north had been kidnapped by Al-Shabaab, with Dadaab refugee camp in North-Eastern Kenya being a centre of activity for many foreign aid workers and therefore being a place of heightened kidnapping risk.

Since much of Somalia is controlled by the group Al-Shabaab, they want the Kenyan troops out of their territory and have carried out some small scale attacks outside (and within) of Somalia since the entry into Somalia by the AU/Kenya

Recently, Kenya has been in the midst of a nurses strike--and this last week, all the public sector nurses on strike were sacked. In situations like this there is an especially large weight on the already strained public health system, so please keep in mind the people affected by the blast and hope with me that no more lives are lost due to these recent events.

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