Somalia

Four aid-worker hostages and two pilots freed

Article published on the 2009-08-11 Latest update 2009-08-11 14:30 TU

Action contre la faim.
( Photo: actioncontrelafaim.org )

Four aid workers from the French relief group Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) have been released in Somalia, the French presidency announced on Tuesday. Two of the hostages were Frenchwomen, there was one Belgian and one Bulgarian.

Somali gunmen had seized the aid workers last November in an area bordering Ethiopia. The aid workers were kidnapped near the town of Dhusamareb, about 350 kilometres north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The Somali authorities said the hostage-takers took their prey to a central part of the country.

The hostage-takers also captured the two Kenyan pilots accompanying them. They were all released on Tuesday. In a statement from the Elysée, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was pleased and relieved by the news that they were all now free.

The six former hostages were escorted to the airport in Mogadishu. They were expected to fly out of there to an unspecified destination for medical tests after their long ordeal.

ACF has been working in Somalia since 1992, the year after civil war broke out in the country.

Two French intelligence agents who had been sent to work with the Somali authorities were kidnapped on 14 July.