Kidnapped nuns safe - Kenya
2008-11-15 23:05
Isiolo - Two Italian nuns kidnapped
by Somali gunmen on the Kenyan border this week are still in
Somalia, but are safe and elders from both nations are
negotiating their release, Kenya said on Saturday.
Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Olivero, 60, were
abducted on Monday by scores of attackers who stormed the small
town of El Wak, firing wildly and launching a rocket at a Kenyan
police post before escaping across the border in hijacked cars.
"Elders from our country and Somalia have managed to
identify the place where the nuns are being held," said Josephat
Maingi, Kenya's North Eastern provincial commissioner.
"They are
safe and we're making all efforts to secure their release."
He told Reuters no ransom demand had been made, and that the
pair were being held more than 100km inside Somalia.
He did not elaborate, but denied Kenya was planning a military
operation to rescue the two women.
"It is true we have deployed security personnel along the
border, but that is just a normal security measure," he said.
Cross-border raids common
The abduction of the nuns, who belong to the Movimento
Contemplativo Missionario Padre de Foucauld missionary group,
came just days after Kenya's army ended an operation to seize
illegal firearms in the lawless area.
Cross-border raids are common in the remote, arid region,
but usually involve cattle rustlers or gangs of robbers preying
on business people in both countries.
Ill-funded Kenyan security
forces can do little to police the vast, impoverished area.
The kidnapping also underlined the risks in Somalia for
humanitarian workers who have increasingly been targeted this
year in kidnappings and killings usually blamed on Islamist
insurgents, clan militias or criminal gangs.
- Reuters