Kim Sue Endicott, a Southern California woman who was abducted in Uganda several days ago, was returned safely after a ransom was paid for her release.
Endicott and Remezo were abducted at gunpoint inside Queen Elizabeth National Park it was reported. Ransom was $500,000.
However, it’s not clear if the figure was paid to the kidnappers. Also unclear is how they were saved.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a comment about the family, saying the United States has a policy of not paying ransom to secure the release of American citizens.
Keith Endicott called on the U.S. government to help save her life.
“Get the Navy SEALS, get them on a plane and go save her. Don’t pay ransom, I’m good with that. But he didn’t say any of those things, and maybe they’re doing those things, but who knows,” he said.
Uganda Wildlife Authority spokeman Bashir Hangi, said the kidnapping is without precedent.
“This is a one-off incident, it’s an isolated incident. It is not something that happens regularly. It is not something that we are known for,” Hangi said to ABC. “It’s very unfortunate, it is regrettable but it happened.”
“Our parks are very safe right now. Tourists are in the parks as I speak. Tourist activities are going on despite the incident. Because we have security in our parks, we maintain national parks and they are all very safe. That’s why you have not had such an incident before, and now that it has happened it has also opened our eyes to do some soul searching and see how can we best improve on the security of our people,” he continued.
“We have armed ranger guides, if you’re going out on a drive in the park you’re supposed to have one but these tourists went out on their own without a guard,” Hangi added. “From their camp in the park, they just got into a vehicle and went out. They should have notified us and informed us that they’re going out for a game drive and then we would have availed them a guard but they didn’t do this.”
Reuters reported that Endicott entered Uganda on March 29 and went to a park in the south.