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Witness History

The Nairobi US Embassy bombing

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In August 1998, more than 200 people were killed in co-ordinated bomb attacks on two US embassies in East Africa. They were among the first major attacks linked to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. We hear from George Mimba who was working inside the embassy in Kenya when the bomb detonated.

Photo: Rescue workers at the scene of the Nairobi embassy bombing (AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds.

0:29.2

Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex

0:38.8

Last with more first-hand accounts of events that shaped our world.

0:43.6

All this week we're looking at the rise and fall of Osama bin Laden, and today I'm taking

0:48.7

you back to August 1998 when the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was hit by a massive bomb, part of a coordinated

0:55.9

Al-Qaeda attack against U.S. missions in East Africa.

0:59.9

In 2016 I spoke to a survivor of that attack and a warning listeners may find parts of this program disturbing.

1:07.0

I cannot describe to you the sound.

1:15.0

It went off and I was lifted up and all the ceiling came down upon me and

1:20.8

barely where I was.

1:22.6

And then the smoke started feeling up the building.

1:26.2

Then I started hearing some cries, people crying for help,

1:30.4

people shouting, some people crying, some people are reeling in pain.

1:35.0

That morning, Friday, August 7, 1998, George Member had been working at his desk on the first floor of the US embassy.

1:46.4

George was a regional information systems manager at the US Mission, a tall dignified and popular

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