France tries Somali men accused of piracy

  Six alleged Somali pirates went on trial Tuesday in Paris for hijacking a yacht and taking a French couple hostage off the coast of Somalia in 2008.

The six Somali men, now between the ages of 21 and 35, are accused of seizing the Carré-d'As IV in the Gulf of Aden and holding Jean-Yves Delanne and his wife, Bernadette Bignon, for two weeks. The men allegedly demanded a ransom of $2 million for the release of the couple.

The pirates were arrested and brought to France after French special forces boarded the yacht and rescued the couple September 16, 2008.

The group faces charges of hijacking, kidnapping and armed robbery, according to a court spokeswoman.

The trial -- the first of suspected Somali pirates in France -- is closed to the public and is being held in a juvenile court, since one of the six was 18 years old at the time of the hijacking.

The men face sentences of up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The trial is expected to last until December 2.

As of mid-November, 11 vessels and 194 hostages are currently being held by pirates, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Incidents of piracy have been on the rise in the past few years, especially along the largely lawless coast of Somalia.

Al-Shabaab leaders contact Kenyan government to negotiate

Conflicting accounts emerged Thursday over whether the extremist group Al-Shabaab has signaled a desire to negotiate with Kenya amid a Kenyan military offensive targeting the group.

"They want to talk," said a Kenyan official who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

A spokesman for the Kenyan government, however, disputed that account and said Kenya wouldn't talk with Al-Shabaab even if the group did want to negotiate.

"Al-Shabaab has not contacted Kenya in any way," said the spokesman, Alfred Mutua. "There are no plans whatsoever for Kenya to negotiate with Al-Shabaab. Kenya does not negotiate with outlawed groups."

He said Kenyan troops have enjoyed success since crossing the border into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab, which the United States and several Western nations view as a terrorist organization.

"They are running scared. I think they are busy running for their lives," Mutua said. "They don't have time to talk."

Kenyan troops struck several Al-Shabaab training sites in Somalia early Thursday, a military spokesman said. The militant group, which includes many rival factions with different leaders, operates from Somalia.

The group's leaders were said to be reaching out for possible negotiations two weeks after Kenyan troops stormed into Somalia to hunt for Al-Shabaab, which Kenya blames for recent kidnappings of foreigners in the nation.

But Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali, Al-Shabaab's second-in-command who is also known as Abu Mansur, told supporters protesting in Mogadishu against the Kenyan incursion that if Kenya struck targets in Somalia, the militant group would strike back.
Kenya has said its forces aim to take the Somali port city of Kismayo, described by the United Nations as a key stronghold and source of cash for Al-Shabaab. The United Nations estimates the group collects up to $50 million a year from businesses in Kismayo, about half of its annual income.

Robow urged what he said were Al-Shabaab-trained fighters in Kenya to take action in return, with the Kenyan port of Mombasa a target.

''Carry out attacks with heavy losses on Kenya," Robow said. "If Kenya closes the sea port in Kismayo, attack its banks, its port, its foreign guests and wherever there is a high-value target."

Kenyan officials have declared self-defense justifies crossing the border with Somalia, saying a recent spate of abductions threatened its security and constituted an attack. Kidnappers have seized two aid workers and two European tourists in the past month.

"We have looked at what is going on ... and decided that unless we move in now, Al-Shabaab is not diminishing, it is becoming bigger and bigger," Mutua said.

The war on terror cannot be won without dismantling the group's power, he said.

Efforts to flush out the terror group will take a "couple of months, if that," Mutua said, adding that "weeks" would be a more ideal time frame.

Analysts and diplomats have raised concerns over the incursion, saying it gives the terror group a reason to strike Kenya.

"If there is anything we have learned in the last couple of decades is that foreign intervention, especially military intervention, doesn't work in Somalia," said Rashid Abdi, an analyst for International Crisis Group. "I definitely understand Kenya's anxiety about the terror threat emanating from Somalia ... but I think there is more that Kenya could have done inside the country."

While noting Kenya's "right to defend itself," the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said it was not part of the decision to send troops to Somalia.

"The United States did not encourage the Kenyan government to act nor did Kenya seek our views," said Katya Thomas, the embassy's press officer. "We note that Kenya has a right to defend itself against threats to its security and its citizens."

Somali President Sharif Ahmed thanked Kenya on Wednesday for helping battle the extremist group two days after he accused the nation of overstepping its boundaries.

2 still missing in Somalia kidnapping and one arrested

Two foreign aid workers kidnapped in Somalia remain missing but a Somali man who was believed abducted with them has been arrested, a Danish aid organization said Wednesday.

Gunman seized the two international workers, an American woman and a Danish man, after they visited humanitarian projects in the northern Galkayo area Tuesday afternoon, the Danish Refugee Council said.

"The Somalian aid worker, also missing, is now in the custody of the local police, and his role in the incident will be further investigated," the council said in a statement.

The pair, as well as the Somali man, were working for the council's demining unit, which aims to make civilians safe from landmines and unexploded ordnance.
The council said its staff members are very experienced and had been trained to work in high-risk areas. No shots were fired in the course of the kidnapping.

The organization has temporarily suspended its activities in the Galkayo area, considered part of Somalia's Puntland province, but is continuing its work elsewhere in the East African country, it said.

"We are very sad about the incident," said Ann Mary Olsen, head of the council's international department. "At the moment Somalia and the rest of Horn of Africa is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. People are in acute need of relief aid and it is quite tragic that we are targeted like this."

Olsen said the organization is working closely with local authorities to try to resolve the situation.

The council currently helps up to 450,000 people affected by drought and conflict in the Horn of Africa, its statement said, and has been involved in humanitarian efforts there for over a decade.

A number of high-profile abductions of foreigners have occurred in recent weeks in Kenya, close to the border with largely lawless Somalia. Those kidnappings have been blamed on the Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab.

Somali militants move fighters to border with Kenya

 Islamic militants have moved fighters to the Somali border town of Afmado in an effort to combat Kenyan forces who have entered Somalia, the militant group Al-Shabaab said Tuesday.
The group said it viewed the Kenyan forces crossing of the joint border as "an affront to Somalia's territorial sovereignty."
This move of fighters, which started Monday, comes after the militant group had threatened to "come into Kenya" if Kenyan forces did not leave Somalia.


"Kenyan troops have entered 100 kilometers into Somalia, and their planes are bombarding and killing residents," Sheikh Ali Mahmud Ragi, spokesman for Al-Shabaab, said in an online message posted on a jihadist website this week. "We shall come into Kenya if you do not go back."
In response, the Kenyan and Somali governments issued a joint communique declaring Al-Shabaab "a common enemy to both countries." They pledged to work together to stabilize Somalia and cooperate in security and military operations.


Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab fighters after the recent abductions of tourists and aid workers in Kenya heightened tensions in East Africa. Kenya invoked the U.N. charter allowing military action in self-defense against its largely lawless neighbor.
The abductions are part of a "recent spate of blatant attacks" that are part of "a changed strategy by Al-Shabaab calculated to terrorize civilians," the communique said.


"If you are attacked by an enemy, you have to pursue that enemy through hot pursuit and to try (to) hit wherever that enemy is," said Kenyan Defense Minister Yusuf Haji in a news conference that aired Sunday on CNN affiliate NTV.
Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al Qaeda, has been fighting to impose its interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia. The group issued a statement Tuesday, however, denying responsibility for the abductions.


"These are mere suppositions unfounded in any solid evidence," the statement said. "Kenyan authorities have been seeking justification for an aggressive incursion on to Somali territory."
On September 11, armed bandits broke into a beachfront cottage where Britons Judith and David Tebbutt, both in their 50s, were staying. David Tebbutt was shot dead while trying to resist the attack. His wife was grabbed and spirited away on a speedboat, and is believed to have been taken into Somalia.
On October 1, pirates made another cross-border raid, this time snatching a French woman in her 60s from a holiday home on Manda Island where she lived part of the year.
Earlier this month, gunmen abducted two Spanish workers from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders from the Dadaab refugee complex, about 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) from the Somali border.


Kenya announced its new tactics days after African Union forces claimed victory against Al-Shabaab in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The military said last week it had taken the remaining Al-Shabaab strongholds in the far northeast of the city.
"The challenge is now to protect civilians from the sort of terror attack we saw last week, as they attempt to rebuild their lives," said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia. He was referring to a suicide truck bombing in Mogadishu this month that left dozens dead. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility. Other Al-Shabaab attacks that week led to the deaths of at least 10 civilians.


Federal and African Union forces have battled Al-Shabaab in the impoverished and chaotic nation for years. Many analysts believe the military push has severely affected Al-Shabaab, along with targeted strikes against organization members and the weakening of al Qaeda.
Al-Shabaab said in August it was withdrawing from Mogadishu, and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, now controls most districts of the capital, the U.N. office has said.
However, the group still poses a threat, Ankunda has said.

Frenchwoman kidnapped in Kenya and taken to Somalia dies

A Frenchwoman kidnapped from her holiday home in northern Kenya and taken to Somalia has died, the French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
A gang of 10 armed men seized Marie Dedieu this month from her home on Manda Island, prompting a sea battle between Kenyan forces and her abductors.
Kenyan officials sent mediators into Somalia a day later to negotiate her release.
Dedieu lived in a luxury home on the scenic Lamu archipelago for about six months out of the year. Kenyan officials and an acquaintance said the woman, in her 60s, used a wheelchair and was not in good health.


"The contacts through which the French government was trying to release Marie Dedieu ... have announced her death," the ministry said in a statement, adding the date and circumstances of the death cannot be specified.
The ministry said Dedieu's death "is almost sure" even if it does not have her body.
"She was an ill and disabled woman," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said. "This is therefore a deeply barbaric and violent act. France condemns firmly this act."
"Marie Dedieu's health, the uncertainty about the conditions of her detention, the fact that the abductors had probably refused to give her the medication we had sent her, make us think that this tragic end is unfortunately the most plausible one," the ministry statement said.
Dedieu's friends and relatives have been notified, it said.


"The French government wants to say that it is deeply moved, saddened and that it supports Marie Dedieu's relatives," the statement said. "The government also wants to express its indignation following the complete lack of humanity and cruelty from the abductors of our compatriot. We want them to be identified and brought to justice."
The statement said the government is requesting "the repatriation of our compatriot's body."
The Kenyan government sent its condolences to Dedieu's "family, friends and colleagues" in a statement Wednesday.


"The kidnapping and detention of Marie Dedieu was a terror act not only against her, but also against Kenya, her home country France and the entire world," the statement said.
"... The Kenyan government thanks the French government and the people of France for their continued support even during this moment of loss."
Dedieu's abduction was the second in the area in a month, a major blow to Kenya, which relies on tourism dollars.


Gunmen seized British tourist Judith Tebbutt and killed her husband near Lamu last month. Security analysts have said Tebbutt is being held by pirates in a remote corner of Somalia. British government officials have asked journalists not to reveal her exact location to avoid abduction attempts from rival gangs.
France and Britain warned travelers to avoid the Kenyan coastline near Somalia in the wake of the abductions.


Kenyan officials have said they believe the kidnappings are carried out by the Al-Shabaab Somali militant group. A third incident involved the kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers at the Dadaab refugee camp last week.
Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia this week to pursue the militant fighters after the kidnappings heightened tensions in East Africa.
In the statement Wednesday, the Kenyan government said operations against Al-Shabaab were continuing.

Somali militants threaten to enter Kenya

Islamic militants in Somalia have threatened to "come into Kenya" if Kenyan forces do not leave Somalia, according to an online message posted on a jihadist website.
"Kenyan troops have entered 100 kilometers into Somalia, and their planes are bombarding and killing residents," said Sheikh Ali Mahmud Ragi, spokesman for Al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group considered a terrorist organization by the United States, in the posting. "We shall come into Kenya if you do not go back."


Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab fighters after the recent abductions of tourists and aid workers in Kenya heightened tensions in East Africa. Kenya invoked the United Nations charter allowing military action in self-defense against its largely lawless neighbor.
"If you are attacked by an enemy, you have to pursue that enemy through hot pursuit and to try (to) hit wherever that enemy is," said Kenyan Defense Minister Yusuf Haji in a news conference aired on CNN affiliate NTV on Sunday.
Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al Qaeda, has been fighting to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia.
On September 11, armed bandits broke into a beachfront cottage where Britons Judith and David Tebbutt, both in their 50s, were staying. David Tebbutt was shot dead while trying to resist the attack. His wife was grabbed and spirited away onboard a speedboat, and is believed to have been taken into Somalia.


On October 1, pirates made another cross-border raid, this time snatching a French woman in her 60s from a holiday home on Manda Island where she lived part of the year.
Earlier this month, gunmen abducted two Spanish workers from the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) from the Dadaab refugee complex, about 80 kilometers from the Somali border.
Kenya announced its new tactics days after African Union forces claimed victory against Al-Shabaab in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The military said last week it had taken the remaining Al-Shabaab strongholds in the far northeast of the city.


"The challenge is now to protect civilians from the sort of terror attack we saw last week, as they attempt to rebuild their lives," African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said. He was referring to a suicide truck bombing in Mogadishu earlier this month that left dozens dead. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility. Other Al-Shabaab attacks that week led to the deaths of at least 10 civilians.


Federal and African Union forces have battled Al-Shabaab in the impoverished and chaotic nation for years. Many analysts believe the AMISOM military push has severely affected Al-Shabaab, along with targeted strikes against organization members and the weakening of al Qaeda.
Al-Shabaab said in August it was withdrawing from Mogadishu, and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, now controls most districts of the capital city, the United Nations office has said.
However, the group still poses a threat, Ankunda has previously said.