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| Africa Horn | |
| Gunmen escape with French hostage into Somalia | |
| 2011-10-02 | |
“Now that it is dark it is next to impossible to continue to follow. The moment is lost,” said Col. John Steed, in charge of the UN’s counter-piracy unit in Nairobi. “Now it reverts to normal kidnapping negotiations.” The 66-year-old disabled woman was grabbed in the early hours of Saturday from a private house on the island of Manda on Kenya’s northern coast. The victim’s Kenyan boyfriend, John Lepapa, said six masked men brandishing assault rifles had stormed their beach house. The wheelchair-bound woman was then carried to a waiting boat in the second abduction of a foreign visitor in three weeks. “They’ve crossed the border into Ras Kamboni,” Balala said, referring to the southernmost tip of Somalia that is under the control of militia fighters. “There are two aircraft on top of them monitoring their position.” The wounded members of the gang appear to be hampering its ability to move deeper inland, he said. Earlier, Kenyan coastguards surrounded the kidnappers near the border with Somalia and the bandits fired into the air in an attempt to scare off the two boats and a circling aircraft. Analysts and diplomats in the region had warned that Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to much more robust defense of merchant vessels by private security guards. Lepapa, 39, and a close associate of the couple said the hostage had been battling cancer and was without her medication. Lepapa and his partner had returned to the island in the Lamu archipelago two days earlier from France, where they spend part of each year, he told Reuters. The raid appeared well planned, he said. “All they were saying was ‘where is the foreigner, where is the foreigner?’,” he said. “My girlfriend pleaded with them and told them to take whatever they wanted from the house, including the money and to spare her life,” said Lepapa. “But they would not listen.” Manda island is one of the pearls of the east African country’s tourism sector where visitors snorkel and bask in the sun and dhows meander lazily down the Indian Ocean. France advised on Saturday against all travel to the archipelago’s palm-fringed islands and warned against sailing along Kenya’s coast due to the high risk of pirates. In early September, gunmen attacked British tourists at a camp resort a short speedboat ride away from Lamu, killing a man and kidnapping his wife. Somali pirates said she was being held in Somalia. The attacks risk harming Kenyan tourism which had been recovering from post-election violence and the global financial crisis. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 Don't go hiking anywhere near Central Asia either. Don't go strolling down the streets in Lahore, Pakistain, either. Particularly, don't get into an argument with an ex-CIA agent over a parking spot in suburban Denver Colorado, either. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-10-02 15:18 |
| #5 Channeling Jeffrey Pelt: "...you lost ANOTHER conflict tourist?" |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2011-10-02 14:37 |
| #4 "Now that it is dark it is next to impossible to continue to follow. The moment is lost" The lads sold the night-vision goggles again? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-10-02 11:59 |
| #3 "Now that it is dark it is next to impossible to continue to follow. The moment is lost," said Col. John Steed, in charge of the UN's counter-piracy unit in Nairobi. "Now it reverts to normal kidnapping negotiations." Quite impossible yes. Besides we've got sundowners and a football game to watch. Silly wanks, vacationing here anyway. Now where are my glasses? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-10-02 09:57 |
| #2 Among our more isolationist brethren as well, Glenmore. That kind of foolishness is not unique to one side of the aisle. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-10-02 09:41 |
| #1 This is what happens when you put guns on the ships; you force the pirates to kidnap little old ladies instead! It's all the fault of the wealthy West for interfering with the income stream of the Somalis. (And while I am being sarcastic, we all know the sentiment is real among some of our more progressive brethren.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2011-10-02 08:56 |