Somalia
Kidnapped journalists freed after 15 monthsPosted Dec 9 2009
Freelance Canadian reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan were released Nov. 26 by unknown captors alleged to be members of “Mujahideen of Somalia.”
Four members of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Parliament collected the journalists at a checkpoint in the Afgoye District. They later made it safely across the border to Nairobi, Kenya with the aid of government soldiers and African Union peacekeepers.
Lindhout and Brennan, along with their Somali guards and driver, were kidnapped in August 2008 outside the Somali capital of Mogadishu. They were in the country researching a story on internally displaced refugees. Their interpreter, Somali journalist Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, was freed in January.
Both journalists report incidents of torture. “My day was sitting on a corner on the floor in a room 24 hours a day for the last 15 months,” Lindhout told CTV. She added: “There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation.”
Brennan told Reuters he had been pistol-whipped and chained since his recapture after he escaped to a mosque in Mogadishu 10 months ago.
A month after the August kidnapping, Al-Jazeera aired a video that showed Lindhout and Brennan pleading with their governments to negotiate a release. Reports said Lindhout was allowed periodic scripted phone calls with her mother and the media in hopes of convincing the Canadian government to hand over ransom money.
Somali police spokesperson Col. Abdullahi Hassan Barise told Garowe Online that top Somali officials and lawmakers played major roles in arranging the release of the hostages. However, he elected not to comment on any ransom payment.
However, Al-Jazeera sources and Somalia's National Security Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Sanbaloshe reported a ransom of $700,000 was paid for the release. Rumors also circulated that up to $1 million may have exchanged hands.
Somalia is deemed one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and aid workers as armed groups repeatedly target them for ransom, according to Garowe Online.