Amanda and Brennan were released for a ransom of 1 million dollars

A Canadian and Australian journalist were kidnapped in Somalia for at least 15 months. The Somali Kidnappers used to torture the journalists while they were held captive.

The journalists were a Canadian freelancer, Amanda Lindhout and an Australian photojournalist, Nigel Brennan were freed on Wednesday by their captives.

Amanda told the CTV television in an interview from Mogadishu the capital “I was beaten and I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation”.

One of the kidnappers told the AFP news agency that a ransom of 1 million dollars was paid for the release of these two journalists. Amanda and Nigel were captured on 23 of August, 2008 when they were traveling from Mogadishu to one of the refugee camps in Afgooye.

At that time a Somali journalist and two drivers were also taken in as hostage but were freed after 177 days. They captives could not identify their captors or their motives of capturing them.

A local tribal chief started the negotiations in September 2008 for the two journalists but the kidnappers wanted 2.5 million dollars as ransom. The demand was then reduced to 1 million dollars by January this year.

Amanda and Brennan were staying at a hotel in Mogadishu before they were sent back to their countries. Brennan said before being released, when he was taken in the car he feared that he was being sold to another anti-government group in Somalia.

Brennan in a telephonic conversation said “Tonight we were ripped out of our rooms, stripped of everything, told to put on new clothes and then thrown in a car and then driven .. we had no idea what was going on”.

“We were always kept by the same people. That was especially one of my concerns towards the end. They were talking about selling us to another group”.

Brennan said he and Amanda were kept isolated for 10 months after they tried to escape from their clutches. He said that from that time onwards he was kept chained and isolated in a dark room.

He said “Locked in a room, very little light. I haven’t been able to exercise at all. You know, simple things like being told not to smile, not to laugh .. not that there was much to laugh about”.

“But my friend Amanda had a pretty rough time, I know that. She was severely beaten and we were both tortured both mentally and physically”.

“Being pistol-whipped is sort of torture, being completely stripped of everything and then locked in a room, no one to speak to, is a form of torture really”.

Journalists and aid workers have been frequently abducted in Somalia for ransom. But this time it was unusually long as Amanda and Brennan spent 15 months in captivity.

Anti-government groups control the major areas in Somalia who are fighting the administration which is very little effective in control over the country.

(Courtesy : Al Jazeera)