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Saturday afternoon windy, Mohamud Ybadin is meeting two co-workers at a quiet and chic restaurant in Nairobi. Wearing black sunglbades and blue trousers up to the knee, he exchanges greetings with his colleagues with a smile on his lips.
Despite his calm behavior, Ybadin is in mourning.
Three days earlier, five armed soldiersShabab armed men stormed the Riverside complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people. Two of them – Abdalla, 33, and Feisal, 31 – worked with Ybadin at Adam Smith International, a UK-based company.
"It was a normal day," says Ybadin. "As usual, my wife dropped me off at the office located in the Riverside precinct." I went there and greeted my colleagues, including Abdalla and Feisal, "recalls Ybadin, 36.
At about 2.25 pm, we heard explosions followed by gunshots, and I immediately knew that we were attacked byShabab. I have been working in Somalia for a number of years, so I am very familiar with the group's attack tactics, "he adds.
Ybadin and some of his colleagues managed to escape by a return road. Once out, they "could not explain Feisal and Abdalla who had gone out to lunch a few minutes before the start of the attack, "he said.
AllShabab the fighters began the attack by an explosion near the cars at the entrance of the complex and by a kamikaze deonting in the lobby of the hotel. Gunment then entered the complex and started firing.
"I'm going to defeat"
Ybadin and many other survivors remained outside the compound during the 20-hour siege, waiting to see if their friends and co-workers were alive.
"We were all shocked to learn that 21 lives had been lost, including my two dear friends.It is always painful to cope with what happened," Ybadin said.
"I now feel what many sufferers feel when they lose loved ones as a result of such attacks. traumatic," he said.
"I will defeat and work twice as hard as a tribute to my two dead friends."
He hopes that there will be no other attack like this, he said.
In a televised speech, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that "there are multiple security efforts underway to disrupt and defeat any terrorist attack, and we are alert and will remain so. visitors and Kenyans are safe in Kenya ".
This is not the first time that the East African nation is under attack. In August 1998, al-Qaeda bombed the US Embbady in central Nairobi, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands.
In September 2013, Al-Shabab gunmen attacked the upscale Westgate shopping center of the capital in a 3-day seat that killed 67 people.
Al-Shabab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, has launched several other attacks across the country in recent years; target churches and install antipersonnel mines along the Kenya-Somalia border.
In 2015, gunmen killed 147 students at Garissa University: this is the worst attack on Kenyan soil since the bombing of the 1998 US embbady .
Tracy Wanjiru, 28, survived both Westgate Mall and Tuesday's 14 attacks on the river.
"Five years ago, I narrowly escaped the Westgate ordeal.I moved on to something else and I did not know that such a thing would never happen again," Wanjiru Al Jazeera said.
"I first heard the explosions and I went out to check what it was, I saw parts of the human body flying all over the complex." immediately understood that it was a suicide blast after seeing a leg fall ground, "said Wanjiru.
The mother of a child, who runs a salon and spa in the complex, was rescued by Kenyan security forces after hiding in his office with colleagues.
Just when the country enjoyed peace, these armed men come and dismount, Wanjiru I said.
Kenyan troops in Somalia
In October 2011, KEnyan Defense The forces crossed Somalia in pursuit ofShabab armed men who had launched a series of attacks against aid workers and tourists several months before.
The troops joined the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a regional peacekeeping mission led by the African Union and supported by the UN Security Council.
After this incursion, Al-Shabab vowed to continue launching attacks in Kenya.
AlShabab said the 14 Riverside attack was a retaliatory move against President Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
The group is trying to prove its resurgence following the US air strikes that killed a number of its leaders in Somalia, Tabitha said. Mwangi Terrorism Research Associate at the Center for International Affairs and Security.
"The group is trying to send a message during the Riverside attack that it is strong and resilient despite the loss of most of its territory in Somalia"; Mwangi Al Jazeera said.
Mwengi advises Kenyan authorities to train all its security agencies "on how to conduct themselves in a suicide attack scenario instead of relying solely on special operations units", including "to train them in Identification of potential suicide bombers ".
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