Two Spanish aid workers kidnapped at Kenyan refugee camp

Two Spanish aid workers kidnapped at Kenyan refugee camp

2011-10-14 06:45:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

NAIROBI (BNO NEWS) -- Two Spanish aid workers working for Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) were kidnapped by unknown gunmen in eastern Kenya on Thursday, officials said. Their driver was shot and seriously injured.

Police spokesman Erick Kiraithe confirmed that two foreigners were abducted by militants while on duty at the Ifo Camp in Dadaab, a town in the North Eastern province. "A driver who was taking them around was shot and thrown out of the vehicle. He is in a serious condition," he added, as quoted by Kenya's Capital FM.

Kiraithe said police have deployed a helicopter to the area as a search continues for the kidnapped women. "The search is ongoing but there are heavy rains in the area and it is hampering the operations," the spokesman said.

The police spokesman refused to reveal the workers' nationalities, but other media reports indicate they are Spanish citizens. The two doctors, who work for the international organization Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), were driving from a facility known as Health Post Q when they were captured at around 1 p.m. local time.


"We believe they have been taken to Somalia because the four-wheel vehicle was seen speeding towards the border [with Somalia]," a police source based in Dadaab told Capital FM. It is believed the kidnapping may have been carried out by the Somali militant group al-Shabaab.

Last month, a British tourist was killed when he resisted an armed gang attempting to kidnap him and his wife at the Kiwayu Safari Village resort north of Lamu, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The wife was kidnapped and remains missing.

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