French hostage taken from Kenya to Somalia dies

PARIS?? A cancer-stricken and quadriplegic Frenchwoman who was kidnapped off an island resort in northern Kenya and taken to Somalia appears to have died, French officials said Wednesday.

Unspecified "contacts" told French officials that Marie Dedieu, 66, had died but that the date and circumstances of her death were not immediately clear, France's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It did not elaborate.

Kenyan officials said 10 heavily armed Somali militants riding in a boat under the cover of darkness kidnapped Dedieu on Oct. 1. Kenyan police and the navy chased but did not catch the captors, who fled north to Somalia.

Kenyan military forces, meanwhile, moved into southern Somalia on Sunday, chasing militants from al-Shabab, which the Nairobi government has accused of having roles in a rash of kidnappings in Kenya, including Dedieu's from the town of Lamu.

French officials denounced the hostage-taking of Dedieu, who often relied on a wheelchair, and suggested that a lack of medical care for her by the kidnappers was to blame for her death.

"Madame Dedieu's state of health, the uncertainty about the conditions of her detention, the fact that the kidnappers probably refused to give her the medication we sent her, lead us to fear that this tragic fate is sadly the most likely one," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

After a weekly Cabinet meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Dedieu's death "isn't totally confirmed but is more than probable."

"Madame Dedieu was a gravely ill 66-year-old woman, afflicted with cancer (and) quadriplegic," he said. "Seizing a woman in this state is an act of barbarity."

Pierre Lellouche, France's junior minister for foreign trade, said Sarkozy at the Cabinet meeting "was very very saddened by the news of her death and especially the conditions of her kidnapping and death."

French officials have demanded that her remains be handed over, and residents in Lamu remembered her as a kind woman.

"Oh my God, she was my friend," said resident Beatrice Halua. "Sometimes I would cross (the water) to give her a massage ? she had bad circulation in her legs ? and she would give me advice on life."

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"She knew how to live with everyone: good people, bad people. She was a nice person ? she had so many friends," she added.

Abdullah Fadhil, the property manager at Dedieu's residence in Lamu, said she was a beloved member of the community.

"We are so, so sad," he said. "We have lost a mother of this village. We have not lost a foreigner. We have lost a mother of the community."

___

Associated Press reporters Katharine Houreld and Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44956088/ns/world_news-africa/

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