Kenyan coast guards surrounded a boat carrying gunmen and an elderly French woman kidnapped earlier yesterday from the northern Kenyan coast and the abductors were firing in the air, a government minister said.
The hostage’s Kenyan boyfriend, John Lepapa, said six masked gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed their private beach house on Manda island, first rounding up the staff who they marched at gun-point to the main living quarters.
In what is the second abduction of a foreign visitor in three weeks, the armed gang ordered the 66-year-old French woman, her boyfriend and the house-helps to lie down, face to the floor, before one of the gunmen grabbed the woman and carried her on his shoulders to an awaiting boat.
Kenyan Minister Najib Balala said the high-seas standoff was taking place near the border with Somalia and that the armed gang were firing into the air in an attempt to scare off the vessels and a circling aircraft.
“Two boats of the Kenyan coastguard have surrounded the boat on which the gunmen and woman are,” Balala said.
“Our fear is if we do drown the boat we will drown the woman,” he said, adding that the woman was disabled.
Lepapa, 39, who said he and the victim planned to marry, believed the kidnap was a planned, targeted attack.
“All they were saying was ‘where is the foreigner, where is the foreigner,’” Lepapa said, adding that he had been questioned by counterterrorism police several hours after the attack.
France said it was assisting the Kenyan authorities.
“I can confirm that she was kidnapped by gunmen in all likelihood from Somalia,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “Naturally, we are doing everything with the Kenyan authorities to find our compatriot.”
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