NAIROBI, Kenya

Tanzanian citizen Rashid Charles Mbereso, who was handed down a life sentence for his role in the 2015 Garrisa University attack that claimed the lives of more than 140 students, committed suicide on Sunday, officials said.

Mbereso, 26, used a rope to hang himself in his cell block at the Kamiti Maximum prison in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, police said in a statement.

He was a psychiatric patient on medication, and often quarreled with other prisoners, the press release said, adding that he took his life at around 1520 hours.

Mbereso, Hassan Edin Hassan and Mohammed Ali Abikar were found guilty by a Nairobi court of aiding militants in carrying out one of the deadliest terror attacks on Kenyan soil in Garissa.

On April 2, 2015, heavily armed gunmen stormed the university and shot dead two security guards before attacking students.

Somali-based al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al Qaeda, had claimed the attack.

Kenya contributes troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, which has weakened al-Shabaab.

The group, fighting to overthrow the Somali government for years, has vowed to carry out terror attacks in Kenya until the East African country pulls out its soldiers from Somalia.