Abducted Journalists Not Harmed!

August 27, 2008 - Qaranimo Online - An organization that fights for press freedom says it has received word that a Canadian freelance journalist kidnapped in Somalia has not been harmed.
Dennis Trudeau, spokesman for Reporters Without Borders, said from Montreal that the organization was told Tuesday by the National Union of Somali Journalists that Amanda Lindhout, 27, from Sylvan Lake, Alta., is not being mistreated by her captors.
Lindhout was abducted at gunpoint with Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan, 35, outside Mogadishu on Saturday.

"The journalists have not been harmed," Trudeau said. "They are clothed, they're being fed and they may even have access to satellite TV."

Trudeau said the journalists are being held about 80 kilometres north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "But obviously, you know, for reasons of security and whatever, we can't tell you exactly where they might be."

Trudeau said earlier news reports suggested that the journalists' guards were also abducted, but he said that is not the case according to Somali journalists' union.
Islamist insurgents didn't take pair: spokesman Islamist insurgents in Somalia said they are not responsible for the kidnapping, according to a news report published in the Australian.

Sheik Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for Somalia's Islamist insurgents, told the newspaper that the kidnapping may have been carried out by a fringe group. "We don't know who kidnapped them. There is a [rebel] group which kidnaps for ransom, separate from rivals who have political objectives," Adow is quoted as saying in an interview published Tuesday.
According to the report, Adow said his group is investigating and is willing to help to secure the release of the two journalists.

"We shall do all that is possible to save them," he told the Australian.

The Somali government confirmed the kidnapping on Sunday. Foreign Affairs in Canada has not yet confirmed the incident. Foreign Affairs said on the weekend that the Canadian high commission in Kenya is aware of news reports that indicate that the two journalists are missing.
The department said consular officials are in contact with local authorities to try to confirm the reports.

News Report on CBC.Ca

Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Abducted at Gunpoint in Refugee Camp near Mogadishu

Two freelance journalists one from Alberta, Canada named Amanda Lindhout, age 27, and one from Australia named Nigel has been abducted at gunpoint near the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Amanda's father who lives in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Canada told Canadian reporters on Saturday that he was contacted by Foreign Affairs department to inform him of the Kidnapping.

According to Global National, a Canwest News Service group,who interviewed Amanda's father by a telephone, said the journalist arrived in Somalia with an Australian friend, the other journalist who was also kidnapped whom the Australian news media calls him only by Nigel.

Ms. Lindhout had being on tour through Africa to gather freelance reports which she planned to sell to Canadian broadcasters and a French television network. Amanda's mission in Somalia was to report on the deteriorating security situtaion as well as the food shortages affecting 2.6 million displaced people.

A Somali translator and two bodyguards set off with the journalists on Saturday morning for a location near Elasha, 18 kilometres south of the capital, and it is believed the group was in a vehicle that was stopped by gunmen as it travelled to a refugee camp near Elasha,

Earlier Saturday, Reuters reported that an unnamed Canadian and an Australian reporter had been abducted on their way to a displaced persons camp. “They left us this morning to visit internally displaced camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu,” said Mohamed Ajos, the head of security at Mogadishu’s Shamo Hotel, where the pair had been staying. “Now they are nowhere to be found. They were accompanied by a Somali translator and were to visit parts of Lower Shabelle region.”

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa issued a travel advisory on July 11 warning all Canadians in Somalia to leave the country indicating that, “there is a high security threat in Somalia. Killings and kidnappings continue to occur in all areas of the country and there have been targeted assassinations of foreigners, including journalists, human rights activists, and humanitarian workers.”
Somali blogs and news will keep you posted on any additional reports coming of out of Mogadishu about this story.

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