Friday 14 November 2008

Two women religious were kidnapped in Kenya by a group of armed men Monday evening. Neither the identity nor the motive of the assailants is known.

Sisters Caterina Giraudo and Maria Teresa Oliviero, 67 and 61, of the Italian Contemplative Missionary Movement Father de Foucauld, were taken Monday night in northeast Kenya, close to the Somalia border.

Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin, apostolic nuncio in Kenya, told L'Osservatore Romano that there is not yet any information about the kidnappers or whether they were a local group or from neighboring Somalia.

The Vatican daily cited local sources in reporting that the attackers were numerous -- possibly as many as 200 men, who first plundered the local police station and then went on a spree that included the kidnapping.

The nuncio said he does not believe the attack was anti-Christian persecution, since violence in that zone has not had religious motives.

According to L'Osservatore Romano, contact has been made with local elders to see if these leaders can manage to obtain the freedom of the nuns.

[Zenit]