Somali gunmen freed two European aid workers on Tuesday without receiving a ransom after holding them for nine days in one of the world's most dangerous places for relief agencies, local leaders said. Attacks on humanitarian staff in the Horn of Africa country have cut their ability to help in one of the world's worst emergencies.
More than 1 million Somalis have been uprooted by fighting in two years and 3 million survive on food aid. Gunmen seized a Belgian doctor and Dutch nurse working for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on April 19 in the central Bakol region, where the men had been carrying out a nutrition study. "We are free now," the Belgian doctor told Reuters by telephone. "We are with the elders and members of the local authority. Of course we are happy now."
Sheikh Aden Yare, a leader of the al Shabaab rebels who control the area, said the pair had been released without condition. His Islamist insurgent group had said its fighters would free the hostages by force if negotiations failed. Shabaab controls large parts of central and southern Somalia and has invited international aid agencies to operate in its territory.
"They are with us and we are going to Hudur to hand over the MSF officers," he told Reuters. "This will not happen again." The gunmen holding them had initially demanded a ransom of $1 million, before increasing it for $4 million. Kidnappings in Somalia, which has been mired in civil conflict for 18 years, are usually blamed on clan militia or Islamist insurgents fighting the government and a small African Union peacekeeping mission in the capital Mogadishu.