Zanzibar Acid Attack: 'Get My Daughter Home'

The mother of one of the British teenagers injured in an acid attack on the island of Zanzibar has appealed for help to get her daughter home.

Nicky Gee told Sky News that she was desperately trying to get her daughter, Katie, safely back to the UK after two men on a motorcycle threw acid over her and a friend, both aged 18, in a late night assault.

She said that her daughter had suffered burns to her "whole face and her whole body" but that she was struggling with the Foreign Office and the insurance company  to get them flown home.

Katie Gee had been volunteering as a teacher

Mrs Gee said that she had spoken to her daughter on the phone following the attack, which was carried out as the two girls walked through the historic capital Stone Town on Wednesday night.

She said: "We are having a real problem trying to get them home at the moment."

Miss Gee and her friend Kirstie Trup, both from London, had been on a four-week trip to the Indian Ocean island working as volunteers at an orphanage.

Kirstie Trup was also injured in the attack

They were walking through the town towards the end of their stay when they were attacked.

The acid substance was splashed their faces, chests, backs and hands and they were flown to hospital in Dar es Salaam, where they have been treated for their injuries.

The attack came at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as people began to celebrate the Eid holiday.

Mrs Gee made it clear, however, that both of the girls were aware of how to behave appropriately in a Muslim country and had been correctly dressed for Ramadan.

The street in Stone Town where the attack took place

A Foreign Office spokeman said: "We are doing all we can to get the insurance company to organise the Medivac. It is completely their responsibility. We are doing what we can to expedite that. 

"We don't have planes at the Foreign Office. There is no commercial alternative so it has to be a Medivac. We have consular officials with the girls and we arranged transport for them between Zanzibar and Dar Es Salaam."

The two teenagers were with the volunteering organisation i-to-i and had been due to return home from the island, a popular destination for gap-year travellers, to the UK on Sunday.

In a statement the organisation said: "The motive for the attack is as yet not known and we will await the report from the local authorities in Zanzibar before any comment can be made.

"The female clients had been volunteer teachers on Zanzibar and were in the final week of their trip.

"The safety of our customers is of paramount importance to us and our own investigation will be launched as soon as it is possible to do so."

Deputy Police Commissioner Mkadam Khamis said: "Police in Zanzibar have launched a manhunt, and we ask for public assistance in identifying the attackers."

He added: "The motive for the attack on the volunteers, aged 18 years, has not been established."

Saleh Mohammed Jidawi, a senior health ministry official, said that the women's wounds were "not life threatening".

The assault is the first against foreigners in the popular tourist destination, however, there have been a series of local attacks in the archipelago, mainly on grounds of religion.

Zanzibar is 22 miles off Tanzania

A Muslim cleric was subjected to an acid attack in November. In February a Catholic priest was shot dead and in December another priest was shot and wounded.

But police described the attack on the British teenagers as an "isolated incident" and refused to link it to rising religious tensions between Muslims and Christians.

The Zanzibar Minister for Information and Tourism, Ali Mbarouk, said: "We should cooperate with other government sectors to ensure that the perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice.

"I beg our nationals in any way this is not something they should be doing because tourism is the strong pillar of our economy so if we do such acts we are killing our economy and our livelihoods in general so it is not an honourable thing to do it's a bad thing and it's supposed to be condemned by all citizens of Zanzibar."

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