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An injured child during the seizure of an Italian volunteer at the Chakama Mall in Magarini, is being treated at the Malindi District Hospital in Malindi, Kenya, on November 21, 2018. (Joseph Okanga / Reuters )
CHAKAMA, Kenya – Armed men stormed a children's home in a remote part of Kenya's coastal region late Tuesday night, kidnapping a 23-year-old Italian woman who volunteered and injured another wife and four children.
This was the first kidnapping of a foreigner in the region since a series of attacks by the al-Shabab terrorist group based in Somalia six years ago.
Local government officials said that the identity of the attackers was unknown, although witnesses from Chakama village said they were heard in Somali. No group has claimed responsibility.
Africa Milele, an Italian charity with which Silvia Costanza Romano volunteered, posted a brief statement on her website: "There are no words to comment on what is going on. Silvia, we are all with you.
Churchill Otieno Onyango, a humanitarian worker who was in Chakama for work, witnessed the attack.
"The guys who approached the house were three Somalis. Two had rifles, one was not. Whoever seized the lady, slapped her and disappeared with her. We were told to lie down and started shooting while they were leaving, "he told the Post in an interview.
This June 2018 photo shows Silvia Costanza Romano, 23, an Italian volunteer who was kidnapped on November 20, 2018 in Chakama, Kenya. (Silvia Cristaldi / AP)
Several other witnesses in the village said that the attackers dragged a woman to a nearby river and eventually crossed her, shooting indiscriminately along the way. Police said that a 10-year-old child was shot in the eye and another 12-year-old in the thigh.
"Right now people are scared," said Albert Chome, a village elder in Chakama. "We are particularly afraid to cross the river. We do not know where the terrorists are. Tonight, if we have no information, I do not think people here will sleep at home, they will sleep in the bush. "
[[[[Somali ethnic people die in Kenya, and some say the government is to blame]
Chome said that he had traded with one of the attackers, who had introduced himself under the name of Said Adan Abdi, a shepherd with goats and cattle that he wanted to cross. the village. Chome says that Abdi has booked three nights in a local guest house.
Kenya's coast is thriving thanks to tourism and a series of kidnappings committed in 2011 and 2012 by al-Shabab has resulted in a regional economic recession.
Two incidents in particular made the headlines of the international press: in 2011, a French French wheelchair was kidnapped on the island of Manda, near the island of Lamu, l '. one of the main tourist destinations of Kenya. The kidnapping took place just weeks after the death of a British man and the removal of his wife from another island near the Somali border. The Frenchwoman died, while the Briton was released for ransom
Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of Kilifi County, where Chakama is located, called for greater vigilance and increased security presence in the region.
"We have to have a security camp here or at least one police station. For many years, peace prevailed and we relaxed. The attackers must have found that there was a way. But we think it's an isolated incident, "he said.
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