U.S. Senator Chris Coons

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, issued the following statement on the attack at a shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya. According to news reports, as of 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, at least 68 people have died and another 175 have been injured in the attack, and at least 30 hostages continue to be held. Four Americans were hurt and the wife of a foreign service national working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed in the attack. Al Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group based in Somalia, has claimed responsibility. Senator Coons will chair a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs on October 8 in Washington to examine security and governance challenges in Somalia, including ongoing international operations to degrade the threat posed by al Shabaab, which controlled much of the country prior to last year’s Kenyan-led military intervention.