Kenya uses helicopters to airlift terror attack victims

The Kenyan government has provided four helicopters to airlift scores of victims who were critically injured in Thursday's terrorist attack on the Garissa University College (GUC) that claimed 147 lives.

Ten National Youth Service buses were also deployed to provide transport for over 300 students camping at the local military camp since Thursday afternoon after they were rescued from the college premises, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Addressing the students at the Garissa military camp, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Nkaissery said the airplanes would transport those injured, including some security officers, to Nairobi to receive specialised medical care.

He said the incident has shocked the country and the international community and the government was determined to lessen the trauma and burden facing the affected students and their families.

"The students will be boarded into separate buses depending on the route taken to their area. For instance, those coming from western regions such as Kakamage, Busia and Kisumu will board the same bus so that it will ease their transportation," he added.

"The security officers are mopping up the college to ensure it is safe for the students to access back and salvage their documents and other items they might have left behind during the attack. The government has successfully ended the hostage crisis by killing the four terrorists," He noted.

"The Kenyan government will not be intimidated by the terrorists who resorted to killing innocent students and as a government, we are determined to fight them the best we can and I am confident we shall win this war against our enemies," he assured Kenyans.

Speaking at the same function, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kimanyi announced the indefinite closure of the university.

"All the affected students will be redeployed to Moi University, which is the mother university so that their learning calendar is not disrupted by an act of terrorists. As ministry in conjunction with ministry of health we shall offer social-psycho trauma healing to the affected students and their parents," he noted.

Kaimanyi said the security of all educational institutions in the country would be beefed up to deter any repeat of what has been witnessed in GUC where 147 paople were massacred by the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group.

The college has been sealed off by heavily armed security officers and nobody is allowed to access in or out. About 500 people, among them relatives, family members and friends of those killed, were seen milling around the college in order to identify the bodies of the deceased still trapped inside.

The smell of burnt bodies and human blood emanated from the college quite some distance away. The families living around the college fled their homes following the terror siege.