Hostage kills captors to escape

Reuters

HOSTAGE FREE: Somalia officials escort Marc Aubriere, one of two French security advisers who were kidnapped by insurgents, to a plane at an airport in Mogadishu

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One of two French security advisers kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month has escaped after killing three of his captors and fleeing to the presidential palace in Mogadishu.

Gunmen had seized the Frenchmen at a hotel in the capital on July 14 then handed one to the Hizbul Islam rebels and the other to fighters from the al Shabaab group, which Washington describes as al-Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa state.

Al Shabaab militants said they had later taken custody of both men, although that could not be confirmed. Somali government officials at the city's hilltop Villa Somalia palace said the man who escaped was in good health.

"We understand he killed three al Shabaab guys who were guarding him. I cannot understand how this good story happened but now he is in the hands of the government," Abdiqadir Odweyne, a senior police commander, said.

Somalia's fragile UN-backed government faces a stubborn insurgency that includes foreign jihadists and militants who Western security agencies say are using the country as a safe haven to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

An al Shabaab source confirmed three of its members had been killed, but said it was not known by whom: "Three of my friends died but who killed them is the question. We were expecting a ransom this morning," the rebel source said.

One associate of the kidnappers said the Frenchman had been freed after talks with Somali elders. A senior Somali government official said a ransom had been paid for his release.

Adding to the confusion over who was holding the pair captive, a French foreign ministry statement said the man had escaped the clutches of Hizbul Islam.

"He is now safe," the statement said.

"Contrary to certain allegations and rumours, this occurred without violence and France did not pay any ransom. The second hostage is still being held."

KIDNAPPINGS COMMON

A spokesman for African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu said the Frenchman was transferred from the palace to their base.

A Somali government official and some media said last month that the two Frenchmen had been posing as journalists. Paris has denied that, saying they were on official government business.

Mogadishu is one of the world's most dangerous cities and has a history of kidnappings of foreigners, mainly aid workers and journalists. Hostages have normally been released for substantial ransom payments after days or weeks in captivity.

Earlier this month, Somali gunmen freed six foreigners - two Kenyans, two French nationals, a Bulgarian and a Belgian - abducted in November.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's administration controls only small parts of the lawless country's central region and a few districts of bomb-blasted Mogadishu.

Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.4 million from their homes.

That has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies, with the number of people needing aid leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million or half the population.

Three-quarters of those in the most need are concentrated in central and southern regions where the fighting is heaviest and aid workers have the least access.

Ahmed has called on the insurgents to observe a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started last week. But the rebels have rejected that and accused the president of planning to use any truce to re-arm his forces.

- Reuters