Chilling CCTV footage of Kenya mall attack shows suspects

Updated October 18, 2013 19:48:00

Chilling CCTV footage has emerged of the cold- blooded attack by militants on people at a shopping centre in Kenya last month. At least 67 people died in the Nairobi attack, which the militant group al-Shabab says it carried out. Little detail has been known about the individuals involved. But now for the first time, a 23-year-old Norwegian citizen of Somali origin has been identified as one of the suspects.

Source: PM | Duration: 4min 40sec

Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, kenya


PETER LLOYD: Chilling closed circuit security camera video has emerged of the militants' attack on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last month.

At least 67 people died when al-Shabaab militants took control of the mall.

Mandie Sami reports.

MANDIE SAMI: It's unclear how many militants were involved in the attack on the Westgate shopping centre.

Police initially estimated there were 10-15 attackers inside the complex, but newly released CCTV footage consistently shows just four gunmen.

It's a horrifying picture. Unsuspecting shoppers, walking around at a leisurely pace, suddenly fall to the ground. Staying as low as they can, they drag themselves along the hard tiled floor, as gun shots are indiscriminately fired.

The only people still standing are the ones carrying guns and they shoot to kill without hesitation.

There are four men. Investigators identified them by the colour of their clothes - they name them black shirt, white shirt, blue shirt, and pink shirt.

But now sources close to the investigation in Kenya and in Norway have told the BBC they believe the man known as black shirt is Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow. He's a 23-year-old Norwegian citizen of Somali origin.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse travelled to the coastal town of Larvik, south of Oslo, where the suspect lived. He showed the CCTV footage to Hassan Dhuhulow's neighbour, Morten Henriksen.

Even though Mr Henriksen hasn't seen his neighbour in about four years, he recognised him in the CCTV footage as the man in the black shirt.

MORTEN HENRIKSEN: Might be him yes.



MANDIE SAMI: Mr Henriksen insists the 23-year-old wasn't typical of others his age.

MORTEN HENRIKSEN: He was pretty extreme, he's talking about Koran all the time. So he didn't like the way we live here. His father told me that he didn't like the way he was going. I was worried. He was talking about, he was... when he was small he was fighting, fighting lots with his school friends, was in trouble at school.

MANDIE SAMI: Hassan Dhuhulow was born in Somalia, but he and his family moved to Norway as refugees in 1999, when he was nine-years-old. He reportedly returned to Mogadishu 10 years later.

His family says he made infrequent and increasingly erratic phone calls back home. In the last one - he said he was in trouble and he wanted to return.

Professor Sam Makinda, a security, terrorism and counter-terrorism expert at Murdoch University, isn't surprised to learn that a Norwegian citizen is among those suspected of taking part in the attack.

SAM MAKINDA: No there's nothing surprising there because many other people who run al-Shabaab are not Somalis, are not Somali citizens, they're foreigners.

Al-Shabaab has strong links with Somali community in Norway. I also understand that al-Shabaab has strong links with the Islamic community in Minnesota in the United States and they may have also a few links or strong links with people in Stockholm and a few other places.

MANDIE SAMI: Professor Makinda says Hassan Dhuhulow would've been easily lured by al-Shabaab.

SAM MAKINDA: This is a person as an individual who found that he could not fit into the Norwegian society, but who also had grown up outside Somalia. So when he goes back to Somalia he cannot fit into the clan system that operates in Somalia.

So he fits nowhere, is alienated and therefore becomes quite radicalised. He hates every society and hopes that he can fight to create a society that fits the picture that he has in his mind, which is just an illusion.

The recruitment is basically done through preaching and through the successes which they have achieved every now and again when they kidnap foreigners, when they bomb nightclubs or hotels. They use the videos there to show they are not just talking for the sake of talking - that they're able to achieve concrete results.

PETER LLOYD: That's Professor Sam Makinda, a security, terrorism and counter-terrorism expert at Murdoch University ending Mandie Sami's report.