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African press review 3 April 2015

Kenya's press is in shock over the deadly university attack carried out by gunmen loyal to the Somali Islamist group Al-Shebab.

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The official death toll is 147, with 79 others wounded in the cold-blooded raid on the Garissa University College campus in the north of the country. Kenya's police chief says 500 of the 815 students in the university have been rescued, but Daily Nation claims that the rest were not properly accounted for. Its sources warn that the death toll is higher than the official tally   perhaps double.

The respected national daily also reports that there was still shooting last night at the campus located close to an army barracks, despite government claims that the siege was over. The Star puts the number of gunmen killed at four, but points out that security forces had not given the number of terrorists involved in the attack.

Standard Digital runs chilling accounts of the massacre, as shocked students narrated how they were awaken from sleep by bursts of gunfire. Some said they managed to escape by jumping out of the window. Others told the paper that they saw the gunmen proceed to two hostels shooting at anyone in sight, and then to a third building where they took hostages. Some fought back tears as they recalled how the bodies of the victims whose lives were brutally cut short by bullets were strewn on the floor.

Several papers are leading with news that the mastermind of the attack has been identified and a 20 million shilling bounty placed on his head. He is Mohamed Kuno, a former Kenyan teacher in Garissa who has been on the run since December last year, when he was identified as the Al-Shebab commander who oversaw the killing of 58 Kenyans in Mandera. The slaughter at Garissa prompted President Uhuru Kenyatta to order 10,000 police recruits, whose enrolment was contested in court, to immediately report for training at the Kenya Police College in Kiganjo, according to Standard Digital.

Daily Nation also carries some news that is likely to fan controversy about the government's response to the terrorism threat. It reports that security services appeared to have received some information that an attack on an institution of higher learning was in the offing, and appeared to have warned institutions to be careful. South Africa's Mail and Guardian described the campus attack in Kenya as a murderous bid by Al-Shebab to grab the world's attention.

According to the Johannesburg paper, the massacre occured after the Somali militant group released a propaganda video threatening attacks against shopping centres in the West. “Westgate was just the beginning,” Al-Shebab proclaims, in the "slickly produced 77-minute film" posted online last weekend. In it, they invoke what Mail and Guardian cynically describes as Al-Shebab’s greatest hit: the siege of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in which 67 people were killed by four gunmen. For the journal it smacks of a bid to remain relevant as other extremist groups such as the Islamic State militant group and Boko Haram grab the world’s attention.

The Nigerian press is buzzing about what Nigeria's outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan told retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari in the phone call conceding defeat in last Saturday's presidential elections. A recording of the telephone call in which Jonathan congratulated Buhari on his victory hit the internet on Thursday. Several papers say Jonathan called Buhari hours before the official declaration of the presidential election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The national press report that Jonathan's gesture has been hailed by many Nigerians and world leaders as rare humility and a spirit of sportsmanship.

"Happy Easter Nigerians",Vanguard says as it looks forward to Sunday's Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Merriment and excesses, the type associated with Christmas, are alien to Easter", comments the daily. In a rare faith-motivating editorial, Vanguard says the manner of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, credited for dying on the cross to save mankind, according to Christian doctrine, is always filled with the sobriety of appreciating the depth of the sacrifice. "It is tough for Nigerians to be happy at this time," it argues. According to Vanguard, economic challenges apart, scores of Nigerians die daily from the terrorist attacks that have heightened insecurity everywhere. Yet, it argues "the results of this presidential election and the expectations it has created could generate momentary happiness".

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