61 are still missing after end of siege
Kenya Red cross secretary General Abbas Gullet helping out the casualties at the Westgate mall during the standoff on 21st September 2013. He said missing people have dropped from 60 to 39.
What you need to know:
- The terrorists descended on the shopping mall last Saturday, killing a total of 67 people and injuring at least 240 others drawn from various nationalities, by the end of the four-day siege.
Some 61 people said to have been among those at the Westgate shopping mall when terrorists struck five days ago, are still unaccounted for.
According to the latest Kenya Red Cross data, six of those reported missing have been found and re-united with their families.
Nine bodies have also been positively identified by relatives.
“The search for the missing people is still on… A number of people have come forward to look for their kin,” a Red Cross official who only identified himself as Mr Anwar told the Nation Thursday.
Red Cross is carrying out the tracing services to locate and re-unite missing persons with their families at Uhuru Park.
The humanitarian agency has set up an online platform for registering missing persons, complementing the hotline number 0714820219. Its Twitter handle @KenyaRedCross also started a #RedCrossTrace tag for information sharing.
According to the brief, the organisation says their main challenge is how to tackle the increased public anxiety on account of missing persons that has been brought about by inadequate information.
The terrorists descended on the shopping mall last Saturday, killing a total of 67 people and injuring at least 240 others drawn from various nationalities, by the end of the four-day siege.
The mall was among the favourite outing joints for expatriates in the city.
Six security officers and five terrorists also died in the attack. Eleven people suspected to have been involved with the well-planned and executed assault are in custody.
The government has embarked on its next phase, which according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku, will involve forensic processes of identifying the dead through their fingerprints and DNA.
Ballistics tests will also be undertaken to determine the nature of weapons and ammunition used in the siege.
Mr Lenku on Wednesday said teams from the US, Israel, Britain, Germany, Canada and Interpol had joined police for investigations.
According to the brief by the humanitarian agency, they on Wednesday, collected 1,972 units of blood in their countrywide donation campaign.
The areas covered were Garissa (40), Nakuru (201), Mombasa (440), Kakamega (99), Kisii (117), Busia (42) and Nairobi(1033), bringing the cumulative number of blood so far donated since the exercise commenced to 11,293.
