Venezuela Condemns Al Shabaab Attack in Kenya, Voices Solidarity with Kenyan People

Caracas, April 6, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro issued a statement on Saturday categorically denouncing Thursday’s deadly Al Shabaab attack against the University of Garissa in Kenya.

The attack was spearheaded by 13 armed members of the Somali militant group, who stormed a student residence, taking the lives of 148 people and leaving 80 injured.

“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in reiterating its rejection of terrorism and condemning its sponsors, sends a strong message of encouragement to its brother Kenyan people and their government. We are certain that the deep democratic vocation of this sister country and the heroic struggle of the Kenyan people will achieve the peace and social justice required for a world free of violence” read the official statement emitted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations.

The Al Shabaab action, which the statement went on to condemn as part of  an “external strategy to destabilize the region”, is the deadliest attack that Kenya has suffered since 1998 when Al Qaeda took the lives of 213 people.

Al Shabaab emerged in the late 2000s out of the breakdown of a series of fragile transitional governments and de facto warlord regimes which followed several decades of U.S.-backed dictatorships coming after the end of colonial rule in 1960.

Some attribute the rise of Al Shabaab and its perseverance to foreign military intervention by Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as to U.S. drone strikes and other covert actions.