Amanda Lindhout - Abduction

Abduction

On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, a 37-year-old freelance Australian photojournalist from Brisbane, were kidnapped along with their Somali translator, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, their driver, Mahad Isse, and a driver from the Shamo Hotel, Marwali. They were believed to be traveling in a vehicle and were stopped by gunmen as they were going to visit a refugee camp. The abductors were teenage insurgents from the Hizbul Islam fundamentalist group.

On September 17, Al Jazeera featured footage of Lindhout and Brennan in captivity surrounded by gunmen. On October 13, 2008, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of US$2.5 million by October 28. On February 23, 2009, the Canadian Association of Journalists urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help secure the release of Lindhout and Khadija Abdul Qahaar, a Canadian woman who was kidnapped in November.

Elmi and the two drivers were released on January 15, 2009. The kidnappers later lowered the ransom demand to $1 million.

On June 10, 2009, CTV News received a phone call from a tearful Lindhout who seemed to be reading a statement: "My name is Amanda Lindhout and I am a Canadian citizen and I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months. I'm in a desperate situation. I'm being kept in a dark, windowless, room in chains without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine.... I love my country and want to live to see it again. Without food or medicine, I will die here."

On November 25, 2009, after 460 days as a hostage, Lindhout was released following a ransom payment made by her family. She was hospitalized in Nairobi for two weeks and treated for acute malnourishment.