No ransom paid for aid workers

2009-01-11 17:45

Paris - The medical aid group Medecins du Monde has said that it did not pay a ransom to free two of its volunteers who were held in Somalia for more than 100 days.

"I want to say very clearly that there was no financial transaction in this liberation," said Pierre Micheletti, president of Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) on Saturday.

Japanese doctor Keiko Akahane, 32, and Dutch nurse Wilhem Sools, 27, were freed on Wednesday and quickly evacuated from the Somali capital Mogadishu.

"I was afraid of being executed each time our abductors picked up their guns," said Akahane.

Akahane and Sools were taken hostage on September 22 in Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region, populated mostly by Somalis, where they were working in a mobile anti-poverty clinic.

Micheletti said the two were transferred to another group and were quickly taken to Somalia and were believed to be held mostly in the Mogadishu area.

The group first made political demands, including the release of Somalis held in Ethiopian jails, but eventually asked for a ransom to let the volunteers go.

Micheletti declined to provide any details about the release of the pair.

"I am exhausted mentally and physically, I need to take a break," said Akahane.

She said they were allowed to do little, and had to prepare their own meals.

Threatened with being executed for a month, Sools said they were very afraid for their lives.

- AFP