Good news for Judith Tebbutt this morning. As the BBC reports,
"Mrs Tebbutt was seized on 11 September last year from Kiwayu Safari Village, a luxury resort on a deserted stretch of Kenyan coastline, comprised of thatched cottages on the beach.
The couple had arrived only the previous day and were the only guests."
Her husband was killed in the kidnapping and she was taken by speedboat and held hostage in Somalia. She has been released on payment of ransom, and flown to Nairobi.
The Kiwayu Safari Village web site says only this:
"Sorry the website is unavailable due to the tragic events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the affected family."
The resort is described here as
"a barefoot luxury retreat on a deserted stretch of white beach facing out over the Indian Ocean," with prices from $400.
Back last October we had a story about a deadly kidnapping from the small island of Manda in Kenya, about 75 miles south of the Somali border. The resort in that kidnapping, Manda Bay, closed and put up a statement that read in part
"Manda Bay will remain closed until we are totally confident that sufficient security has been provided for the whole area."
They hired a "fast response boat" and reopened December 1st.
Lesson: Take your East African beach holiday beyond Somali speedboat range, down to Mozambique or out to Seychelles.
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