Fears for French hostage in stand-off

The elderly victim’s Kenyan boyfriend, John Lepapa, said six masked gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed their private beach house on Manda island under the cover of darkness, first rounding up the staff and marching them at gun-point to the main living quarters.

In what is the second abduction of a foreign visitor in three weeks, the armed gang then ordered the 66-year-old French woman, her boyfriend and the house-helps to lie face to the floor, before one of the gunmen grabbed the wheelchair-bound woman and carried her to an awaiting boat.

Lepapa, 39, and a close associate of the couple said the hostage had been battling cancer and was without much-needed medication.

He said his partner had returned two days earlier from France, where they spend part of the year. The raid appeared well planned, he said.

“All they were saying was ‘where is the foreigner, where is the foreigner’,” he said, adding that he had been questioned by counter-terrorism police several hours after the attack.

“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.”

Tourism minister Najib Balala said the tense face-off was taking place near the border with Somalia and the bandits were firing into the air in an attempt to scare off the ships and a circling aircraft.

“Our fear is if we do sink the boat we will drown the woman,” he said, adding that the woman was disabled.

Analysts and diplomats in the region warned earlier in the year that Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to much more robust defence of merchant vessels by private security guards.

In early September, pirates shot dead a British man, publishing executive David Tebbutt and kidnapped his wife, Judith, from a resort near Lamu.