PARIS — A disabled Frenchwoman kidnapped by Somali gunmen inKenya this month has died in captivity, the French government announced Wednesday.
Reuters
Marie Dedieu, 66, was dragged from a beachfront bungalow on Manda, a tourist destination, in the early morning of Oct. 1.
The woman, Marie Dedieu, 66, was dragged from a beachfront bungalowon Manda, an island that is a tourist destination, in the early morning of Oct. 1. Witnesses said a small group of heavily armed Somalis beached their speedboat in front of her home, perhaps alerted to her presence by local workers. A recovering cancer patient and quadriplegic who had lived on the island for years, Ms. Dedieu was taken without her wheelchair or medication.
It was one of a series of similar attacks by Somali gunmen that have shaken Kenyan tour operators and security officials in recent weeks, and that Kenya has used to justify a military campaign into Somalia, begun on Sunday.
Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister François Fillon spoke of the “indignation that is ours in the face of this act of cruelty, this act of barbarity,” noting that Ms. Dedieu was aged, disabled and sickly. “This speaks to the humanity of those who kidnapped her,” Mr. Fillon said. The government had tried to send medication to Ms. Dedieu, he and other officials said, but it was believed that her captors had refused to give it to her.
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