The pristine beaches of Kiwayu where the incident took place/FILE
MOGADISHU, Sep 20 – A British woman held in Somalia after being abducted from a Kenyan beach resort where her husband was shot dead is suffering from stress and has come down with fever, a pirate leader said on Tuesday.
“I was told the hostage is stressed and very sick with fever,” Abdi Yare, who said he had spoken to the kidnappers from his pirate lair of Hobyo, told AFP.
Judith Tebbutt, who is reported to have hearing difficulties, was seized early on September 11 from a remote beach resort near the Kenyan-Somali border by armed men who shot dead her husband.
“She also has problems communicating with the kidnappers. She asked for a phone to contact her son and her brother back home,” Yare added.
On Sunday elders in Amara, a village north of the pirate hub of Harardhere, said that Tebbutt had been transferred there from a boat by the pirates who are holding her.
Amara, part of the self-proclaimed administration of Himan and Heeb, is the village around which Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple seized from their yacht in 2009, were held for most of their time in captivity.
On Tuesday elders in the Harardhere area said Tebbutt has been transferred to an unknown location.
“The pirates have moved the lady from Amara area, we don’t exactly know which place, but we are getting that they are changing locations to avoid being tracked down,” Abdulahi Muhumad, an elder in Harardhere district said.
Gure Osman, another elder in the area, also gave the same information about pirates moving the hostage from Amara area.
“There are around dozen heavily armed pirates holding the hostage. They have started moving her from place to place in order to fool anyone on their tracks,” Osman said.
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