A Japanese doctor and a Dutch nurse kidnapped in Somalia last September while working for a French medical charity have been freed, the organization said on Wednesday.
“Medecins du Monde announces the release of its two volunteers, Keiko Akahane and Wilhem Sools, abducted on Sept. 22, 2008, in Ethiopia and held in Somalia. They were freed at midday [9am GMT] and are safe,” the organization said.
“The agency welcomes the release and expresses solidarity with other people still being held in Somalia and calls for their quick release,” the Paris-based charity said in a statement on its Web site.
A armed Somali group that snatched the pair in a drought-stricken village in Ethiopia had demanded US$3 million in ransom, but the agency did not say whether any money was paid for their freedom.
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen expressed delight at news of the pair’s release, adding that Dutchman Sools and his Japanese colleague Akahane appeared to be in good health.
“Minister Verhagen is happy for Mr Sools and his family that this difficult period is now over,” a foreign ministry statement said, while also praising Medecins du Monde’s “ardent efforts” to secure their release.
Akahane’s mother Chieko told the Japan Broadcasting Corporation that she was relieved to hear of the release but would only feel at ease when she saw her daughter.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone also welcomed the news while urging nationals to refrain from visiting trouble spots around the world.
“I am delighted and congratulate Ms Akahane, her family and others concerned,” Nakasone said in a statement.
Armed gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings across the lawless Horn of Africa country, often targeting either foreigners or Somalis who are working with international organizations to demand ransoms.
At the weekend, two foreign journalists, a Briton and a Spaniard were freed after almost six weeks in captivity in Somalia’s breakaway Puntland state.
On Tuesday, gunmen killed a Somali aid worker with the World Food Programme (WFP) in the violence-plagued nation’s southern Gedo region, making him the agency’s third worker to be slain in since August last year.
In November, gunmen raided an airstrip in central Somalia and kidnapped four foreign aid workers with the French NGO Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) and their two pilots.
Aid organizations have warned that one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises is unfolding in Somalia and complained that attacks and kidnappings had made their operations virtually impossible to sustain.
The WFP said 3.25 million of Somalia’s 10 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
RSS