Search on for kidnapped Filipino in Kenya

(UPDATED) NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan security forces on Saturday, June 30, scoured border regions with war-torn Somalia in the hunt for armed kidnappers who seized 4 aid workers, including a Filipino, from the world’s largest refugee camp.

The two men and two women who work with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), come from Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines. A Kenyan driver was killed and two others were wounded during Friday’s attack in the refugee camp of Dadaab.

In its latest statement, the NRC refused to release the names their 4 abducted workers. The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), however, as well as various reports, identified the abducted Filipino as Glenn Costes. 

Costes is NRC’s acting aid manager in Dadaab, according to an NRC statement last March. The aid organization serves some 70,000 refugees in the camp.

“The search is intensifying and more security forces have been sent to make every effort possible but, so far, no one has been recovered,” Kenyan army spokesman Cyrus Oguna told AFP.

Aerial searches were ongoing using both military helicopters and aircraft, while vehicles and troops on foot searched the remote scrubland either side of the porous border with Somalia.

The Philippine embassy in Nairobi, for its part, has requested Kenyan authorities for assistance in rescuing Costes, the DFA said in a text message to Philippine media. The DFA added the embassy is also coordinating with the Kenyan government, as well as the NRC, on the kidnapping.

“We are deeply concerned about the welfare of our missing colleagues,” the NRC said. “We have notified their families and we are in close contact with relevant authorities in Kenya and internationally.”

Still in Kenya?

Kenya, which invaded southern Somalia in October to attack Al-Qaeda linked Islamist insurgents, has troops some 120 kilometres (75 miles) deep into Somalia. However, the forces control only pockets of the vast territory.

But despite fears the gunmen and their hostages would head for Somalia — some 100 kilometres from Dadaab — Oguna said he was still hopeful they remained inside Kenya.

“We are thinking that they are in Kenya, we are making every effort that we can, and we are hopeful of a positive outcome,” he added.

The aid workers’ vehicle, which the gunmen stole after killing the driver, was found abandoned a few hours after the attack.

NRC is working to support some 465,000 inhabitants in the Dadaab complex, which constitutes Kenya’s 3rd biggest town in terms of population.

The kidnapping is the latest in a series of attacks in Dadaab, where gunmen last October seized two Spaniards working for Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). They are still being held hostage in Somalia.

The kidnapping of the Spaniards was one of the incidents that spurred Kenya to send troops and tanks into Somalia to fight the Shebab insurgents Nairobi blames for abductions and for cross-border raids. — with reports from Rappler.com/Agence France-Presse