NAIROBI, Kenya — Four European aid workers and two Kenyan pilots released in Somalia after nine months as hostages arrived in Kenya on Tuesday, a relative said.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Four European aid workers and two Kenyan pilots released in Somalia after nine months as hostages arrived in Kenya on Tuesday, a relative said. The freed hostages were in good condition, said James Kamore, the father of one of the pilots, Duncan. Kamore saw his son in a room at Wilson Airport in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after an EU-chartered plane carrying them from Somalia landed Tuesday evening. Journalists weren’t allowed into the room and were kept at a distance. The pilot and the other five former hostages work for French aid group Action Against Hunger. Staff members of the group who saw the former hostages told The Associated Press that their colleagues had lost weight but they were in good mental condition. The staff members spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "They are telling me they are okay. They were very well treated and finally they (the abductors) realized that nothing was going to come so they let them go," Kamore told the AP, adding he had been told no ransom was paid for their release. In Mogadishu, National Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Ali said all six "were released after the intervention of government officials, businessmen, clan elders and religious leaders in Dhusamareb," the Somali town where they were captured. In Paris, Action Against Hunger said the six were "apparently all in good health" and will undergo medical examinations. The aid group said gunmen seized the six in November in Dhusamareb, about 360 miles (580 kilometers) north of the capital Mogadishu, as they were heading to the airport to fly to Kenya. The Bulgarian government said the Europeans were two French citizens, a Belgian and a Bulgarian. "As far as we know, no ransom was paid," Ali told The Associated Press. French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed "great relief" at their release and congratulated all those who helped to free them, his office said. Action Against Hunger’s Web site says the group employs 14 foreigners and 220 Somalis on projects to promote health and access to clean water. Foreigners, journalists and aid workers are frequently abducted for ransom in Somalia. The country has had no effective government since 1991 and remains in the grip of violence and anarchy. Before Tuesday’s releases, 16 aid workers were in captivity in Somalia, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. No evidence exists to link the kidnapping of aid workers to the recent surge in piracy off Somali’s coast. But the ransoms that pirates have netted from ship owners may highlight the financial value of taking foreign hostages in Somalia, a country where nearly half of the population depends on foreign aid. Associated Press writers Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya, and Angela Charlton in Paris, contributed to this report. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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