Somali gunmen release 2 abducted aid workers

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Somali official and a clan elder said gunmen have released two European aid workers after holding them for nine days in southwestern Somalia. Rab Dhure District Commissioner Sheik Mohamed Kheyr said elders and an extremist Islamic group helped secure the release Tuesday of the Belgian and Dutch aid workers of the group Doctors Without Borders. The aid group declined to comment. Kheyr says no ransom was paid. Clan elder Mad Hussein, who helped negotiate the release, said the aid workers are well but tired. He said they are in Rab Dhure, a town near the border with Ethiopia. The aid workers were taken hostage on April 19 by masked gunmen. Kidnapping of aid workers is common in Somalia, and kidnappers often demand ransoms.