Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that a 19-hour siege on the DusitD2 hotel and office complex in Nairobi is over, but the Kenyan Red Cross said Wednesday that dozens of people are still missing.
"The security operation at Dusit complex is over, and all terrorists eliminated. As of this moment, we have confirmation, 14 innocent lives were lost through the hands of these murderers, terrorists, with others injured," Kenyatta said.
The president said Kenyan security forces had killed all four attackers, and 700 people were rescued.
A few hundred meters from the scene of the attack, victims' relatives and friends gathered to identify the bodies.
Margret Ojoo spoke of frantic efforts made by her daughter and some friends to find Ojoo's niece, who was trapped in the complex. In the end, her daughter discovered the niece had been killed.
Yassin Jamaa lost two nephews who worked for Adam Smith International, a government consulting company that has offices in the DusitD2 complex.
"I have lost two boys. One got married the other day, and they both started working at the international agencies. But unfortunately, we have lost them," Jamaa said.
The company said Abdallah Dahir and Feisal Ahmed were killed on the terrace of a restaurant in the complex. Both men had worked on the Somalia Stability Fund, a project to bring peace and prosperity to Somalia through various community initiatives.
Jamaa said he could not understand the motivation of al-Shabab, the group that claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The ones who brought this pain to me are carrying our name, Islam. I am also a Muslim. The question I'm asking: 'Why are they killing human beings?'" Jamaa said.
The Islamist extremist group has carried out several killing sprees in Kenya, including the 2013 Westgate Mall attack that left 67 people dead.
