November 27, 2009 - The Daily Star - Somalia Journalists Leave Somalia after 15-month Hostage Hell

Journalists leave Somalia after 15-month hostage hell

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Two journalists from Canada and Australia flew out of Somalia on Thursday at the end of a 15-month hostage ordeal during which they were tortured and shackled in windowless rooms by their captors. Amanda Lindhout, her head covered with a black veil, and fellow freelancer Nigel Brennan boarded a private plane at Mogadishu airport after being escorted there by pro-government militia, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear where they were headed.

While the two were kept away from journalists, the Canadian Lindhout earlier told an interviewer how she had been beaten and tortured by her captors and acknowledged a $1 million ransom had been paid to secure their release.

One of Lindhout and Brennan’s kidnappers, who refused to identify himself, confirmed to AFP that a ransom of $1 million had been paid.

Lindhout told Canadian broadcaster CTV by telephone she spent her captivity “sitting in a corner on the floor 24 hours a day for the last 15 months. There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured.”

“It was extremely oppressive,” she added. “I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food.”

The kidnappers told her that they beat her, she said, because the money “wasn’t coming quickly enough.”

The Australian family of Brennan spoke of their “overwhelming” joy after his release.

An emotional Kellie Brennan, the photojournalist’s sister-in-law, fought back tears as she recounted the family’s harrowing emotional journey since his capture.

“It’s very hard to express the overwhelming sense of joy that we have today that we feel as a family at the news of Nigel and Amanda’s release,” she told reporters.

The two were kidnapped by unknown gunmen on August 23, 2008 on the road leading from Mogadishu to Afgoye, 25 kilometers to the west, where they intended to visit camps for people forced to flee fighting in the capital. A Somali journalist and two drivers were also taken hostage but freed after 177 days.