Britain has warned its citizens not to travel to within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the Kenya-Somalia border after the kidnapping of two Westerners. The Foreign Office updated its travel advice late Saturday, advising against “all but essential” travel to coastal areas of Kenya within that distance. The advice warns that “beach-front accommodation in that area and boats off the coast are vulnerable.” Armed kidnappers who snatched a disabled 66-year-old Frenchwoman from her beachfront home in a prized Kenyan resort have taken her to neighbouring war-torn Somalia, officials said Sunday.With Kenyan forces obliged to stop their pursuit at the border and officials suspecting Somalia's terror group, chances dimmed of a quick release for the woman, named as Marie Dedieu. Western countries rushed to update their travel advisories and Kenya to save its vital tourism industry following the incident, which came less than a month after a British woman was abducted from the same area and her husband killed. “We have not managed to get her back but we have adequately secured the border to ensure it does not happen again,” Coast Province police chief Aggrey Adoli told. The latest kidnapping prompted France and Britain to issue new travel advice, warning travellers to avoid not only Somalia but the nearby Kenyan coastline as well.This is a blow for tourism which is a key foreign currency earner for Kenya, East Africa's largest economy.
