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British Hostages In Somalia Freed
NAIROBI, April 4 (News Agencies) - Two British U.N. security officers held captive by Somali gunmen arrived in the Kenyan capital Wednesday, hours after being released in Mogadishu where they were held for more than a week following a bloody gun-battle.
"We are delighted that Bill and Roger are back, safe and sound," U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Somalia, Randolph Kent, said of Bill Condie, 61 and Peter Carter, 41.
Immediately upon their arrival in Nairobi, the ex-hostages boarded a vehicle, making no public statement. A physician and a psychologist met them, the U.N. said.
"They seemed in good physical shape," Kent told journalists, adding that the U.N. was not directly involved in negotiations for their release.
"The U.N. does not pay ransoms," Kent said, responding to a question.
Condie and Carter had been held in the north of the Somali capital by gunmen affiliated to warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow, who were said to have acted on their own initiative in abducting the pair.
Their ordeal had begun on Tuesday last week when a north Mogadishu compound used by the medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres came under attack by gunmen loyal to Yalahow.
Condie and Carter were among nine western aid workers caught up in the incident, during which 12 Somalis were killed.
Earlier Wednesday, Yalahow's right hand man Omar Mohammed "Finish" told AFP the Britons had been brought from their place of captivity in the north of the city and taken to his house in the southern Medina district pending their imminent departure for the Kenyan capital.
"They are in my hands. They are free to go to Nairobi," said Finish.
"The two men are officially free," echoed Hussein Jillow, an elder who had been negotiating with the duo's captors.
"No money was paid by the [U.N.] agency but expenses incurred during captivity were paid" by Yalahow's clan, Jillow said.
On March 28, five of the aid workers caught up in the firefight left a house where they had been trapped during the gunbattle, while another two, who had been taken captive, were released unharmed on Friday.
According to Finish, parallel efforts by the fledgling transitional government (STG) in Mogadishu had hampered the release of Condie and Carter.
"We were expecting them to be freed on Sunday but later elders from the STG made the gunmen change their minds and prolong negotiations," said Finish, who said the STG had promised to pay the abductors for the Britons' freedom.
STG officials were not immediately available for comment.
Yalahow is among a group of warlords who do not recognize the legitimacy of the STG, which since its inception last year has not managed to exert control far beyond a few pockets of Mogadishu.
In Ethiopia last month, this group of warlords, which also includes Hussein Mohammed Aidid, created the Somali Restoration and Reconciliation Council (SRRC), a body charged with organizing a national conference aimed at establishing what the SRRC says would be a more representative government.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the fall of late president Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
On Monday, Aidid told AFP that the SRRC had been "working day and night" for the release of Condie and Carter.
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