Four aid workers with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) have been freed from captivity in Somalia following a rescue operation, officials said on Monday. The four workers - from Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines and Norway - were abducted Friday by masked gunmen from the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. Their driver was killed and two Kenyan workers injured.
"We rescued the hostages and our forces killed one of the kidnappers while three others escaped. The foreign aid workers who were kidnapped are now safe," Abdinasir Sareer, a spokesman for a pro-government militia in Somalia, told dpa. Seerar said his Ras Kamboni brigades in southern Somalia got a tips that the kidnappers were trying to move the aid workers to a new location.
Fighters then moved in, freeing the four in the early morning. Capital FM in Nairobi quoted Kenya's army as saying the four had been sent for medical check-ups at a military hospital in southern Somalia. Kenya's troops control pockets in the region. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs also confirmed their release and said the group was on its way to Nairobi. "The Norwegian Refugee Council is relieved and pleased to confirm that our four abducted colleagues are found and released," the aid group said in a brief statement, adding that the hostages' families had been informed.