Five people, including children, shot and injured in attack in south-east of country

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Gunmen have kidnapped an Italian aid worker and shot and wounded a woman and four children in Kenya, police and witnesses said, in the first abduction of a foreigner in the country since raids blamed on Somali Islamist militants six years ago.

Men armed with AK-47 rifles seized the 23-year-old woman from a guesthouse in Chakama, a small town close to the south-east coast, late on Tuesday, officers and local residents said.

Police said they had not identified the attackers and no group immediately claimed responsibility. Italy’s foreign ministry named the woman as Silvia Romano.

The Italian charity that Romano was working for, Africa Milele, posted a short message on its website saying: “There are no words to comment on what is happening. Silvia, we are all with you.” The group says it helps orphaned children.

Two witnesses told Reuters they heard the gunmen speaking Somali. “There were three attackers and they targeted the Italian lady,” said Chad Joshua Kazungu.

The woman was seized after she came out of her room to find out what was going on, a third, unnamed witness told Kenyan TV channel KTN News. “Their aim was to get money but they took off with her to the river,” he said.

The attackers opened fire as they left, wounding a woman and four children, he added. A 10-year-old child was shot in the eye and a 12-year-old was hit in the thigh, police said.

On Wednesday a police helicopter circled over the green and yellow guesthouse where the volunteer had been staying.



Chakama in Kenya’s Kilifi region is 40 miles (60km) inland from the bustling coastal tourist resort of Malindi.

A series of abductions further north in 2011 and 2012 - and other attacks by al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants from neighbouring Somalia - caused a slump in tourism numbers and revenue.

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Local tour operators said they thought Tuesday’s attack would have only a limited impact on the vital tourism industry.

“The European market might have a small shake-up, but Malindi is 500km from Nairobi so I don’t expect the safari industry to be affected,” said Robert Katithi, sales director from Go Kenya Tours and Safaris.

Gunmen grabbed a French woman from her home on the northern island of Manda in 2011 weeks after pirates killed a British man and kidnapped his wife from another resort island. The French woman died while she was still being held, while the English woman was released after a ransom was paid.

At the time, the Kenyan government blamed al-Shabaab - which launched attacks inside Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi’s military interventions in Somalia. The militants denied responsibility.

Armed men kidnapped four aid workers and killed a driver at Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp near the border with Somalia in 2012.