A tourist from the United States and its Ugandan driver was kidnapped in Africa from the National Park of Queen Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth National Park) in South-West Uganda.
They were kidnapped by armed men, who soon demanded $500 thousand buyout.
According to local police, 35-year-old Kimberly sue Endecott were driving through the Park with Ugandan driver Gin Floor, when on Tuesday evening, April 2, their car was ambushed. The car was surrounded by four armed men.
An elderly couple of tourists who were also at the scene, was not abducted, and that these tourists raised the alarm by informing the police about the incident.
The identity of the kidnappers is not yet established. The Somali Islamist militant group «al Shabaab» in the past carried out attacks in Uganda, but never kidnapped for ransom.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is the most visited Park of Uganda, it is located about 400 km (250 miles) southwest from the capital Kampala, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where there are many rebel groups.
The kidnappers quickly put forward a ransom demand using a mobile phone Kimberly Endicott.
The police blocked all the districts of the outskirts of the Park on the border of Uganda and Congo. The police said that the abducted may still be in the Park.
The U.S. Embassy in Kampala said that later will be published the official statement.
In 1999, the American couple, four Britons and two new Zealanders were killed along with four Ugandan guides when their group was ambushed militants in the jungles of Bwiti.
Survivors said the killers, apparently, were the rebels of the ethnic Hutu based in Congo.
