News From Africa: Somalia: Kidnapped Spanish Aid workers Released

By Staff Writer

MOGADISHU---Two Spanish aid workers kidnapped from a Kenya refugee camp nearly two years ago by militias have been freed in Somalia, theM?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) said on Thursday.

The two female Spanish nationals Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, were working for the aid agency at the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya situated 100km from the Somalia border, where they were kidnapped from in October 2011.

In a statement, MSF said it was with great relief that the agency was able to confirm the release of the two and it was still working to return the two aid workers home.

?Both are safe and healthy and keen to join their loved ones as soon as possible,? it said.

No further details on the release of the two were given by the organisation, which has condemned attack on aid workers.

?MSF strongly condemns this attack on humanitarian workers who were in Dadaab offering lifesaving medical assistance to thousands of refugees,? the organisation said.

The two were kidnapped on13 October 2011 by gunmen inside the refugee camp, shooting and wounding their Kenyan driver. The attack, and several others on foreigners in Kenya mainly along its coast impelled Kenya to send its troops into Somalia in pursuit of the dreaded al-Shabab Islamists, whom it had blamed to be responsible.

The Kenyan military operation, alongside the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia has aided drive of the once powerful Islamists out of territories they controlled.

The al-Qaeda linked group has since its major loss resorted to guerrilla attacks in the capital, Mogadishu and other cities, though it still controls smaller towns and rural centres in central and southern Somalia.

The Kenyan soldiers in Somalia have now been absorbed into the African Union (AU) force which is helping to prop the Somali government in place.

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Source: http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_13966.html

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