No chance

In 2006, Jessika Buchanan, then a 27-year-old teacher, steps off a plane in Nairobi, Kenya. She has long dreamed of helping to teach African children. In 2009, she met and married Swedish Erik Landemalm. Erik worked with authorities in Africa to coordinate humanitarian aid. Together they then left for Somalia with the prospect of starting a family.
Jessica was particularly interested in the phenomenon of child soldiers and their return to normal society. It also trained local residents on how to prevent injuries caused by unexploded ordnance. However, on 25 October 2011, a gang of Somali pirates kidnapped Jessica and her Danish colleague under threat of being killed and demanded a large ransom for them. For the next three months, Jessica was terrorized by over two dozen gangsters. She was kept outdoors in adverse conditions, with inadequate food, and her health continued to deteriorate. The ransom negotiations dragged on and the kidnappers grew increasingly impatient. Her husband has been negotiating with them all along with the help of intermediaries. He was supported by the Crisis Management Team, linked to the FBI regional office. After ninety days of fruitless negotiations and at the real risk of Jessica's death, President Obama ordered Navy SEAL Team Six to conduct a rescue operation. On January 25, 2012, just before Obama's State of the Union address, a twenty-four-man Navy SEAL team attacked the heavily armed hijackers under cover of darkness, killing all nine. The unharmed hostages were evacuated by military helicopter.
In the book, Jessica and Erik chronologically recount their journey through these torturous months together. It is a testament to bravery, a harrowing account of a fight for life, and a deeply personal story of a victory that stood no chance.
Jessica's story is also a confrontation between the passion and zeal of foreign aid workers who want to help suffering people in developing countries and the harsh reality. A dysfunctional state, an economy in decay, Poverty, high crime rate, armed clan gangs, all of these are obstacles to providing effective help, needed especially in the education of children and adults. Pirates, who hijack ships for ransom, have been gradually pushed ashore by military measures at sea and attempt to maintain their income from crime by kidnapping foreigners. Few aid workers are willing to risk their lives, leaving these countries in a vicious circle with no way out.