A wounded woman is helped to safety outside Westgate Mall Sept. 21 in Nairobi, Kenya. A gun battle inside the shopping center left several people dead after gunmen attacked one of the city’s most exclusive malls. photo courtesy of MCT Campus

by Christina Elias

On Sept. 21, a group of al-Shabaab gunmen launched an attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Almost a month later, 23 people are still missing in the wake of the terrorist attack, Kenyan newspaper The Star reported on Tuesday.

According to the article, rescue operations ended two weeks ago. The number of missing people, reported by family members, dropped from 67 after being reunited with loved ones. Secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross Society Abbas Gullet said that 10 victims are currently hospitalized.

The attack, launched by Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab, left at least 200 injured and at least 67 dead by the time it ended Sept. 24. The militant group is a Somalia-based organization that has been linked to acts of terrorism in the past.

The BBC reported that they have “established from senior security sources that in the weeks leading up the siege, the Islamists hired a shop in the mall. This gave them access to service lifts, enabling them to stockpile weapons and ammunition.”

The government’s response to the incident has been met with criticism and controversy.

“Rumors, speculation, conspiracy theories, and a few facts have swirled around Nairobi, because the Kenyan government has provided so little information in the aftermath of the attack,” NBC News reported Oct. 11. “Or the government has provided information which conflicts with other sources.”

Reports of government soldiers looting the empty mall and therefore drawing out the standoff have alarmed citizens, leading the government to begin an investigation of its armed troops’ actions.

According to NBC News, “Al Shabaab said the attack was meant to force Kenya to withdraw its troops from Somalia.”

“If their desire is for Kenya to pull out of Somalia, my friends, all they need to do is what they should have done 20 years ago, which is put their house in order,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement to NBC News. “I want to be categorically clear: We will stay there until they bring order in their nation.”

The National Post reported a week after the attack that upon returning to the mall, “many people say they are on guard” and that “it’s a nervous time in Nairobi.”