Last Friday (June 29th) this year, an aid convoy belonging to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) was attacked by Somali militants. A Kenyan driver was shot and killed and five aid workers were abducted.
Early on Monday (July 2) the aid workers were rescued in a joint rescue operation launched by Kenyan and Somali forces. This story had a happy ending, but not all such incidents end well. In October 2011 gunmen abducted two Spaniards working for Medecins sans Frontieres, and they are still being held hostage in Somalia. As with most kidnapping and abduction cases, time is a critical factor with regards to returning the victims to safety.
Cambridge based Voyage Manager has solutions that could have helped the NRC locate and rescue their employees sooner. Voyage Manager provides automated and accurate travel and location based tracking services that can help locate travellers or assets 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The NRC vehicle that was used as a getaway vehicle after the attack had a tracking device, but the vehicle was ditched shortly after the attack, making it hard to trace the location of the attackers and victims. Personal tracking worn or carried by the abductees would have made locating them easier and quicker.
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