Source: skynews.com / Kenya soldiers pictured at the scene of an attack on a Nairobi hotel Tuesday Jan. 15, 2019

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has deployed a team to Kenya to assist with investigations into the terror attack on a Nairobi Riverside hotel complex  which left at least 20 dead and dozens wounded.  The expertise provided by the international Incident Response Team (IRT) includes disaster victim identification, cyber analysis to decrypt seized mobile phones and other portable devices, biometrics, explosives and firearms, as well as photo and video analysis, according to INTERPOL.  The IRT was deployed at the request of Kenyan authorities and its specialists will carry out real-time comparisons against INTERPOL’s global databases on evidence gathered from the crime scene.

Credit: Interpol.int / Jürgen Stock, Interpol Secretary General, outside the organization’s headquarters in Lyon, France.

“INTERPOL’s role is to help coordinate the international investigative response in support of the Kenyan authorities as they investigate this appalling terrorist attack,” 

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

Stock added that INTERPOL is offering all necessary assistance to help bring those responsible to justice, “Whether through comparison of information against INTERPOL’s global databases, or the issuance of a Notice to identify a victim, locate a wanted person, or seek additional information on suspects.”

“Experience has shown us that just one piece of information can prove vital in connecting the dots – and that could come from anywhere in the world,”

the INTERPOL Chief  concluded.

In addition to INTERPOL’s IRT deployment, support is also being provided to Kenya’s national authorities via INTERPOL’s Regional Bureau in Nairobi, and the 24-hour Command and Coordination Centre (CCC) at INTERPOL’s General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France, as well as in Singapore and Buenos Aires, Argentina. With a number of foreign nationals among the victims, and investigations on-going, the CCC will also act as a central liaison to the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus of all the involved countries to ensure any ante mortem data on those killed during the attack, both victims and suspected perpetrators, is received as quickly as possible by Kenyan authorities.

In other news, INTERPOL and the African Union (AU) signed an information sharing agreement this week which provides a platform for cooperation with AFRIPOL in the fight against terrorism and organized crime. Under the accord, AFRIPOL will have access to INTERPOL’s nominal, stolen motor vehicles, and stolen and lost travel documents databases.  INTERPOL Secretary General Stock and AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui signed the agreement at the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in France.