Foreign Office advise against travel to Kenya

03/10/2011

By Emma McFarnon

Armed gangs have attacked a third tourist in Kenya, prompting the Foreign Office to advise Britons against all but essential travel to the country's coastal areas.

Ten heavily armed Somali militants kidnapped a French woman from a beach resort in the Lamu archipelago, northern Kenya, on Saturday.

It is believed the woman, identified as Marie Dedieu, is being held hostage on a pirate boat. The boat was tracked down and surrounded by security forces.

The attack is the second of its kind to have taken place within a month.

On 11 September, Briton David Tebbutt, 58, was killed and his wife Judith, 56, abducted by armed gunmen from a resort near the tourist town of Lamu.

The Foreign Office said: "We advise against all but essential travel to coastal areas within 150km of the Somali border, following two attacks by armed gangs in small boats against beach resorts in the Lamu area on September 11 and October 1, 2011.

"This advice will be kept under review. Both attacks were on beach-front properties, with two Westerners kidnapped and one murdered.

"Beach-front accommodation in that area and boats off the coast are vulnerable."