Kenya identifies suspects in Italian woman’s kidnapping

Kenyan police have identified three suspects in the kidnapping of an Italian woman and are offering a reward of one million shillings ($9 750) for information leading to their arrest.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the first kidnapping of a foreigner in the East African nation in several years. Police have said they are optimistic the aid worker will be found “within the shortest time possible.”

The 23-year-old Italian Silvia Costanza Romano was seized on Tuesday from a coastal community by gunmen who also wounded five people, including children.

Such attacks had become rare after 2011 when Kenya deployed forces to neighbouring Somalia in a bid to stop the al-Shabaab extremist group from kidnapping foreigners.

Kenya’s National Police Service posted on its official Twitter page the images of the three suspects, who were identified as Ibrahim Adan Omar, Yusuf Kuno Adan and Said Adan Abdi.

SOURCES: ASSOCIATED PRESS