Bartamaha (Nairobi):- The British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates have told of the ‘torture’ they feel at being forbidden from seeing each other.
Paul and Rachel Chandler have spent five weeks apart, speaking to each other only sporadically.
In a phone call their captors allowed them with a Somali TV channel, both spoke of the toll being apart is taking on their abilities to cope.

Mr Chandler said that being forbidden from seeing his wife was ‘torture’. In the call, the 60-year-old added: ‘We have never in our married life been apart this long.
‘We have our anniversary next Sunday, we will have been married 29 years.’
‘His wife Rachel said: ‘I spoke to him [Paul] six, seven or eight days ago but they don’t let us … we’re not together.
‘We’ve not seen one another for five weeks now but I was allowed to speak to him.’
The 56-year-old added she was ‘very tormented and very, very lonely and worried’.
The recordings – believed to have been made a fortnight ago – were broadcast by ITV News last night.
Mr Chandler, who is understood to be in desperate need of medication for an eye infection which could leave him blind, did not mention his condition.
His wife added the couple were ‘grateful’ the British Somali community were trying to help them.
‘It’s very nice to know that the Somali community and the UK are concerned about me,’ she said. Somali community leaders in Britain have tried to persuade the hostage-takers to let the Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, go free.

A series of high-profile Somalis have also spoken on TV channels in the country to press the case.
Concerns have grown in recent weeks about the Chandlers’ health.
The last footage of them showed they had lost dramatic amounts of weight and were gaunt.
Last week it was revealed that Mr Chandler was suffering from the bacterial infection trachoma.
The disease makes the eyelids turn inwards, so that the eyelashes cause scratching on the surface of the eye. This causes unbearable pain and eventually loss of sight.
The infection is spread by flies or human contact in areas with poor sanitation and no clean water.
Last night the Foreign Office insisted it was doing ‘everything it could’ to free the couple.
‘We are monitoring the situation closely and doing everything we can to help secure a release,’ a spokesman said.
‘We have raised Paul and Rachel’s situation with key Somali contacts from the outset and the diaspora community has shown considerable goodwill. We repeat our call for their safe and swift release.’
Mr and Mrs Chandler were kidnapped in October while sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania in their 38ft yacht, the Lynn Rival, and taken hundreds of miles to Somalia.
The British Government was embarrassed as it emerged armed Royal Navy personnel had watched as they were taken from their yacht to a pirate launch and not been given orders to intervene and save them.
The pirates had threatened to kill the couple if they did not receive a £4.5million ransom.
Although they have now cut the demand to £1.3million, there are fears the couple could be sold on to militant Islamist groups in the war-torn and effectively ungoverned country.

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Source: daily mail.

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