By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Three aid workers from Action Against Hunger (ACF), a french aid group, were released Saturday.  The three men were from Pakistan, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

They were being held in Somalia since July, according to humanitarian agents and Somali sources.  The men will be reunited with friends and family once they have received medical checks, although they are said to be in good health.

The three men who were captured were headed to Nairobi via the southern town of Luq.  They were kidnapped on July 17 boarding a plane in Mandera, Kenya and taken into nearby Somalia.  It is reported that ten gunmen facilitated the kidnapping.

Rebel Islamist movement Hezb al-Islam official Sheikh Ali Hussein said that the organization facilitated the aid workers’ return but had nothing to do with their kidnapping.

“A small plane flew the hostages out of the airport at Luq after they were freed by their kidnappers,” he said.

Somalia’s radical Shebab movement also denies having a hand in the kidnappings.

According to Hussein, a ransom was paid for the workers.  A local elder has reported that the aid workers were returned for a sum of 2.5 million dollars.

The kidnapping of foreigners in Somalia is rampant and cross-border raids are common in the area.  Because the Kenyan security forces are so poorly funded there is little that they can do to police the vast area.

Kidnappings for ransom have risen in the past few years.  Journalists and aid workers are most often targeted as they are the most vulnerable.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Three Foreign Aid Workers Held in Somalia Since July Freed – 03 October 2009

AP – Militant: 3 Aid Workers Freed in Somalia – 03 October 2009

BBC – Aid Workers Released in Somalia – 03 October 2009

Reuters – Somali Gunmen Release 3 Foreign Aid Workers – 03 October 2009

Xinhua – Aid Workers Released in Somalia: Islamist Faction – 03 October 2009