11/29/2018 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – Kevin Lomosi and Elijah Nderitu are grateful to God for rescuing them from the claws of armed militants. A typical night turned tragic when al-Shabaab terrorists struck with the aim of killing the non-local Christian teachers of Arabia Secondary School in eastern Kenya. The two survivors recalled the deadly attack to ICC.

“We were woken up by a loud blast at the door that caused objects to fall and glasses to shatter. In that moment, we knew that the Somali al-Shabaab members had stormed our school and they were targeting us. The explosive device did not succeed in blasting the main door apart. They [then] went around the house shooting at us through the windows,” Mr. Lomosi recounted.

The attack on October 10 left two Christian teachers, Philip Okumu and Daniel Wekesa, dead. The school is located in Mandera East Constituency, approximately two kilometers from the Kenya-Somalia border. Although the Kenyan government has been erecting a security wall with surveillance equipment at the border, the terror group frequently sneaks across the border to commit atrocities against Christians before fleeing back to Somalia.

“The 1:00 a.m. attack lasted about 40 minutes,” Lomosi said. “When the blast went off, I quickly slid under one of the two beds in my room and leaned on the wall. All the bullets just barely missed me. I heard them cock their guns and I was so terrified and weak that I could not even scream. It seemed to me like a horror movie. I smelled gun smoke for the first time.”

Although Mr. Lomosi was traumatized by the attack, he remembers the incident in vivid detail.  “The shooting spree went on for about five minutes. I was not sure whether my three colleagues were still safe. I heard the assailants talk in Somali dialect and they cocked their guns again. There was some quietness, and one would think the assault was over. Suddenly, they threw another explosive that flung open the door. Two gunmen entered my room and the others went into my late colleague’s room. They checked in [a] hurry and left. I don’t know how they missed me, but I saw them.”