french woman hostage kidnapped in kenya has died

Sad news to report

Dedieu and Kenyan boyfiend

A 66-year-old, wheelchair-bound Frenchwoman who was kidnapped from a northern Kenyan island earlier this month and held in Somalia has died, French officials announced Wednesday.

"The contacts with whom we were working to secure the release of Marie Dedieu have told us of her death," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement released Wednesday.

The statement did not provide details on when she died or the circumstances of her death.

Dedieu was kidnapped on October 1 from a beach house she was renting in Manda, an idyllic Indian Ocean island off Kenya’s northern coast, near the Somali border and part of the Lamu Archipelago.

A co-founder of leading Frenchwomen’s rights group MLF (Mouvement de libération des femmes) who also acted in the film “Bed and Board” by celebrated film director François Truffaut, Dedieu had been wheelchair-bound since she had an accident several years ago. She was also battling cancer and required regular medication.

“Ms. Dedieu’s health and the uncertainty over the conditions of her detention, the fact that the kidnappers may have refused to hand over the medicines we have sent her, lead us to fear that this tragic outcome is unfortunately the most likely,” said the official French statement.

Source: France 24 Read the story