A German aid worker kidnapped in north-western Somalia was freed after local security forces fought off the gunmen who seized him, his employer and a Somali official said on Wednesday. Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, also known as the German Agro Action, said its employee, Daniel Bronkal, was freed on Tuesday evening.
Shots were fired during the release operation, but Bronkal was not hurt, and the kidnappers fled. "I was treated very well by the kidnappers. There was enough to eat and to drink, and they did neither threaten me, nor beat me," the organisation quoted Bronkal as saying. The aid worker was taken during a car ambush early on Tuesday in Era Gabo, a town in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.
The enclave's Interior Minister Abdillahi Ismail Ali said security forces freed the kidnapped man after fighting off six gunmen who had abducted him. "The government of Somaliland will not at any time negotiate with terrorists who commit such acts. This is part of our policy," Ali told Reuters.