Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and her Australian photographer, Neil Brennan, have been freed in Somalia.
Lindhout and Brennan were abducted on August 28, 2008, at gunpoint in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital.
Both had been reporting on refugees who had escaped factional fighting when they were kidnapped.
Agence France-Presse, citing unnamed kidnappers, said Lindhout’s family paid $1 million dollars of ransom to secure the pairs release.
Shortly after her release, Lindhout called CTV News from Mogadishu, saying she had some “pretty dark moments,” while in captivity.
“There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation,” she said.
While in captivity, Lindhout said she would “ just try to escape in my mind to a sunny place, usually Vancouver, in my mind. I'd imagine running around in Stanley Park.”
The Canadian Association of Journalists [CAJ], Canada’s largest professional organization for journalists, released a statement welcoming the release of Lindhout and Brennan.
“We are overjoyed that Amanda and Nigel have been released and will soon be with their families,” CAJ President Mary Agnes Welch said in a statement.
“We thank all of those journalists and members of the public who have supported the campaign to secure their freedom,” she added.
The CAJ worked tirelessly to secure the release of the kidnapped journalists. Welch last wrote Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the one year anniversary of the kidnapping, urging him “to bring the full weight of his office to bear on efforts to secure Amanda Lindhout's release.”
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