Today's News, Tomorrow's Lesson - September 25, 2013

Following the storming of an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi,
Kenya, by the terrorist group al-Shabab, PBS NewsHour correspondent
Margaret Warner sat down with Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed to
talk about the attack.

Like many other Kenyans, Amina Mohamed and her daughter knew some of
the victims.

“We all lost somebody there,” she said. “This is a huge tragedy.”

The attack represents the largest single loss of life in Kenya since
the 1998 US Embassy bombings.

“I think we're all shocked,” said Mohamed. “And what does it tell
us? It tells us that, as governments, we must do better. If they can
cooperate at that level, if they coordinate their evil at that level,
that governments around the world must cooperate even more, that we
must be able to share our intelligence, we must be able to share our
resources, we must be able to combine our efforts and to collaborate
even more closely, to just make sure that we stay ahead of the curve.”

Al-Shabab’s attack on Kenya stems from the African Union’s (which
includes Kenya) use of force in Somalia to uproot al-Shabab and other
Islamic extremists who had taken over the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Despite the fact that al-Shabab calls Somalia home, it commands a large
force of foreign fighters as well. In fact, some of the attackers may
have come from America.

“From the information that we have, two or three Americans, and I
think so far I have heard of one Brit [involved in the attack],”
Mohamed said.

“I think this attack shows this: that we do not do enough. We need
to work much more closely with everybody, but much more with the US, I
think, and the UK government.”

This video from PBS
NewsHour Extra provides more information about this important
topic.