Survivor found in Kenya school attack which killed 148

Cynthia Cheroitich survived the massacre at Kenya's Garissa University College by lying hidden in a cupboard for two days, she told AP.

|
Christopher Torchia
Survivor of the killings at Garissa University College Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, who was found on Saturday two days after the attack, drinks some milk in a hospital ward in Garissa, Kenya Saturday, April 4, 2015. Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, told The Associated Press from her hospital gurney that she hid in a large cupboard and covered herself with clothes, refusing to emerge even when some of her classmates came out of hiding at the demands of the gunmen from the al-Shabab group.

A survivor of the killings at Garissa University College was found on Saturday, two days after the attack by Islamic extremists killed 148 people.

Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, told The Associated Press from her hospital gurney that she hid in a large cupboard and covered herself with clothes, refusing to emerge even when some of her classmates came out of hiding at the demands of the gunmen from the al-Shabab group.

She was rescued shortly before 10 a.m., according to Kenyan officials.

Cheroitich said she didn't believe that rescuers urging her to come out of her hiding place were there to help, suspecting at first that they were militants.

"How do I know that you are the Kenyan police?" she said she asked them.

Only when Kenyan security forces had one of her teachers appeal to her did she come out, she said.

"I was just praying to my God," Cheroitich, a Christian, said of her ordeal.

Cheroitich appeared tired and thirsty, sipping on yoghurt and a soft drink, but otherwise seemed in good health.

She said she drank a lotion because she was so thirsty and hungry while in hiding.

The good news that Cheroitich survived the attack came as grieving Kenyans gathered in Nairobi to view the bodies of family members killed in the Garissa attack.

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Garissa attack, a Kenyan official said.

Kenyan security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia, said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka in a Twitter post. He said the three are associates of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin Gamadhere, a former teacher at a Kenyan Madrassa Islamic school who authorities say coordinated the Garissa attack. Kenyan authorities have put a $220,000 bounty for information leading to Gamadhere's arrest.

The three arrests brings to five the number of suspects arrested in relation to the Garissa attack as two suspects were arrested at the college.

Al-Shabab on Saturday warned of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College, according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group,

The Islamic militant group issued a statement which said the attack on Garissa college was in retaliation for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the rebels in Somalia.

The attack on the college in northeastern Kenya on Thursday killed 148 people.

"No amount of precaution of safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath," said the statement.

"Kenyan cities will run red with blood ... This will be a long, gruesome war of which you, the Kenyan public, are its first casualties," said the statement, issued on Shabab affiliated webites and Twitter accounts.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Survivor found in Kenya school attack which killed 148
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2015/0404/Survivor-found-in-Kenya-school-attack-which-killed-148
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe