Somali kidnappers demand cash for Dedieu's body

The Somali kidnappers of a disabled French woman, Marie Dedieu, who died after she was snatched from her home in Kenya three weeks ago, are demanding a ransom for the return of her body. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet described the move as “despicable”. 

Reuters/Handout

“Seizing a woman of this age, who is sick and paralysed and not giving her her medication, allowing her to develop septicemia from which she apparently died, and then proposing to sell her remains. These are not people who deserve anything but contempt,” Longuet told the i-TELE news network.

He added the French military were not planning any action against the kidnappers in Somalia because they were a “small band, a small minority, an exception who dishonour the territory”.

A gang of armed men seized Dedieu from Manda Island in Kenya’s Lamu archipelago earlier this month and fled by sea to Somalia, fighting off an attempt by Kenya’s navy to stop them.

Kenya has blamed Islamist Shebab rebels in Somalia for a spate of recent kidnappings of foreigners.

Two Spanish aid workers and a British woman, are still being held.