EP calls for support to Kenya's efforts to combat terrorism

Tributes were paid by the European Parliament (EP) Wednesday to the Kenyan students killed in an early April deadly attack.

Nearly 150 students were murdered on April 2 at the Garissa University campus in north eastern Kenya, the latest in a series of atrocities perpetrated by the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab radical group.

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) condemned the killings in the harshest terms during a debate, demanding that the European Union (EU) supports the African country in its efforts to combat terrorism.

Speaking on behalf of the EU, foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Neven Mimica, the commissioner responsible for international cooperation and development, said the EU unreservedly condemned such attacks.

Spanish Socialist MEP Elena Valenciano said: "I fear there is a great deal of ignorance (in the West) on what is really going on in Kenya. The EU has to support Kenya. It is a war against all of us."

Angel Dzhambazki, a Bulgarian member of the European Conservatives & Reformists (ECR) group, added: "The radical extremists are now uniting against our values and our way of life and this has been very clearly and arrogantly illustrated in recent days. That is why we don't need resolutions, but military operations helping Kenya."

However, Spanish MEP Lidia Sendra Rodriguez, a member of the United European Left group, said this was not the answer.

The EU should instead tackle the causes of conflicts in Africa. "The solution is not more military operations," she warned, adding that most people in Kenya live in poverty.

The attack on Garissa University was the deadliest in Kenya since the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings which claimed 213 lives.