Nairobi - Kenya was in mourning on Friday for 147 people killed on a university campus in the biggest attack attributed to the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab on Kenyan soil.
The Red Cross was leading a blood donation campaign for gunshot victims in Garissa, at about 350 kilometres east of Nairobi, where gunmen attacked Moi University early Thursday, singling out Christians.
About 80 people were injured.
Many of the injured and bodies of the dead were flown to Nairobi, where family members were invited to collect bodies at a mortuary.
At least four gunmen stormed the university campus at dawn, killing two guards and then gunning down students in dormitories, and others trying to escape.
Some students said they were spared because they could recite verses from the Koran.
“They stood in the main path from the hostels, asking questions about Islam and the prophet. It was scary, because Islam doesn’t teach about killing those who don’t know about the teachings,” the newspaper Daily Nation quoted student Hassan Abdi as saying.
Security forces cornered the attackers into one dormitory where they were holding hostages.
The siege finally ended after 16 hours. The government said four attackers were killed. The Daily Nation said they detonated suicide vests.
Kenya offered a reward of 20 million shillings (212 000 dollars) for the suspected mastermind of the attack, Mohamed Dulyadayn, a former Koran teacher from Garissa.
A senior al-Shabaab commander, who did not want to be named, confirmed to dpa by phone from southern Somalia that the group had carried out the attack.
Police imposed an overnight curfew in Garissa and nearby counties until April 16.
The White House in Washington extended condolences to the families of the victims, while African Union spokeswoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said she was “appalled by such a barbaric act.”
The terrorist attack was the worst in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, which killed more than 200 people.
It was the biggest strike by al-Shabaab against Kenya, exceeding the death toll of the September 2013 siege of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in which 67 people are known to have died.
Al-Shabaab frequently stages attacks in Kenya - especially on the coast - over Kenya’s participation in an African Union military contingent that is helping the Somali government to battle the group.
DPA