Somalia: Two foreign journalists released

  1. Posted on Thursday 26 November 2009 - 18:30
    Muhyadin
    Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    Somali gunmen released on Wednesday night two foreign journalists who were held for 14 months in the capital city of Mogadishu of war-torn Somalia.
    Somalia fighters_Mohammed Odowa
    Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan and Canadian freelance reporter Amanda Lindhout were abducted in Mogadishu in August 2008 while they were visiting a refugee camp outside of the capital.

    Both have been flown to neighboring Kenya.

    Journalists waiting at Mogadishu airport were not able to talk to the released journalists because a convoy of vehicles full of government soldiers and African Union peacekeepers prevented them.

    Brennan said the kidnappers treated them well but feared they would have been given to the Islamist group of Al-shabaab.
    Brennan told Reuters: "They were saying that al Shabaab was willing to pay half a million dollars for us, and then hold us till they could get whatever they wanted for us."

    Lindhout told Canada's CTV from Mogadishu that $1 million ransom had been paid.
    Reporters without borders based at Paris have said Lindhout works for French TV station France 24 and Global National News. Brennan is a freelance photographer.

    A Somali journalist, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was captured with them, was freed in January.

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