Italian aid worker kidnapped in Kenya: what we know
Gunmen abducted Sylvia Constanza Romano, 23, and shot five others including children
Gunmen have kidnapped an Italian volunteer working for an aid organisation in southeast Kenya, police have announced.
The raiders reportedly stormed into a trading centre in the coastal town of Chakama and opened fire on fleeing people, before abducting 23-year-old Sylvia Constanza Romano. Five other people were injured, including a ten-year-old shot in the eye and a 12-year-old hit in the thigh.
One of those injured is in a serious condition following the attack, at 8pm local time (5pm GMT) on Tuesday.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to The Guardian, this is the first abduction of a foreigner in Kenya “since a series of raids blamed on Somali Islamist militants six years ago”.
Witnesses said the attackers spoke Somali and had targeted Romano, a volunteer with charity Africa Milele Onlus, which helps vulnerable children.
One bystander told Associated Press that six men, some armed with guns and others with machetes and clubs, had specifically “demanded to know where is the mgeni”, the Swahili word for “visitor”.
“I told them she had left to go and get a power bank but they didn’t believe me and surged into the room where they found her,” the witness added.
The attackers then proceeded to “slap her very hard until she fell”, he said.
Another witness told Kenyan TV channel KTN News: “Their aim was to get money but they took off with her to the river and, before leaving the village, they started shooting in the air and they shot one woman and four boys.”
The National Police Service confirmed the abduction in a post on Twitter.
A message on the website of Africa Milele Onlus said that there are “no words to comment on what is happening”, adding: “Sylvia, we are all with you.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Elevating Earth Day into a national holiday is not radical — it's practical'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
UAW scores historic win in South at VW plant
Speed Read Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers union
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 22, 2024
Cartoons Monday's cartoons - dystopian laughs, WNBA salaries, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Sydney mall attacker may have targeted women
Speed Read Police commissioner says gender of victims is 'area of interest' to investigators
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Why are kidnappings in Nigeria on the rise again?
Today's Big Question Hundreds of children and displaced people are missing as kidnap-for-ransom 'bandits' return
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Haiti's mass jailbreak: what do gang leaders want?
Today's Big Question Gangs hope violence will bring down Prime Minister Ariel Henry amid a growing security and economic 'nightmare'
By The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
How the idyllic Galapagos Islands became staging post in world drug trade
Under the radar Ecuador's crackdown on gang violence forces drug traffickers into Pacific routes to meet cocaine demand
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Armed gangs, prison breaks and on-air hostages: how Ecuador was plunged into crisis
The Explainer Gangs launch deadly revenge after president declares state of emergency following escape of feared drug boss from prison
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Ecuador tips toward chaos amid prison breaks, armed TV takeover
Speed Read New President Daniel Noboa authorized the military to 'neutralize' powerful drug-linked gangs after they unleashed violence and terror across Ecuador
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Prague shooting: student kills 14 people at university
Speed reads Police believe suspect, who killed himself, may have shot his father before carrying out mass murder
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published