A handicapped French woman who was kidnapped from her beach front home at a Kenyan resort island and taken to neighbouring Somalia has died.

While Marie Dedieu's exact cause of death has not been confirmed, the French government believes that it is probably because her kidnappers refused to give her the daily medication she requires for cancer and heart disease treatment.

Kenya's government has blamed Dedieu's kidnapping on Somali fighters from the al-Shabab group.

Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports.