Frenchwoman kidnapped on Kenyan coast

An elderly and disabled French woman was kidnapped from a private house on the northern coast of Kenya early Saturday morning, said Andrew Mwangura, a hostage negotiator for the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program.

“It's believed a group of people came into the house in the middle of the night, people heard gunshots and then she disappeared,” Mwangura said by phone from the port city of Mombasa today. “We're told she's an old-aged woman, who is very sick and needs medication.”

The 10 “heavily armed” abductors are believed to be members of the al-Shabaab Islamic insurgency from Ras Kamboni in Somalia, according to an emailed statement from the office of Kenya's Minister of State for Internal Security. While Kenyan navy officers injured several of the bandits in pursuit of their high-speed boat today, the suspects managed to enter Ras Kamboni, near the border with Kenya, it said.

France is collaborating with Kenya to obtain the release of the kidnapped French citizen, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Paris said by phone today.

Manda Island, where the unidentified woman was abducted, is part of the Lamu archipelago, near where David Tebbutt, the finance director of London-based book publisher Faber & Faber Ltd., was shot and killed by intruders at a resort he was staying at with his wife last month. Judith Tebbutt was kidnapped and is still being held captive.

Somali Pirates

The newest hostage-takers haven't made known their demands, Mwangura said.

“If it's gunmen, then it's maybe a monetary gain they want,” he said. “But if it's a political motivation, then it will be for other demands, for political issues.”

Foreign naval patrols have increased in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden to combat Somali pirate attacks, which are fueling insecurity and raising shippers' costs. Tourism was Kenya's second-biggest foreign-exchange earner after tea last year.

Somalia is the hardest hit by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in six decades, with six regions in the south experiencing famine putting 750,000 at risk of death by starvation. Somalia hasn't had a functioning central administration since the fall of Mohamed Siad Barre's dictatorship in 1991.