03 Oct 2009

Somali gunmen have released three aid workers who were captured in a cross-border raid in July in northern Kenya, a report says.

"They have just been released and taken to Nairobi," Sheikh Abdirisak, an official with Hizbul Islam, told Reuters Saturday.

He said the group came to Luq in southwestern Somalia several days ago and asked to use the airstrip. "The administration accepted their proposal and worked the security of the deal," he said.

It was not clear if a ransom had been paid for the release of the aid workers, taken from Kenya's remote Mandera province that borders Somalia and Ethiopia.

A witness confirmed the report. "I have seen with my own eyes those three aid workers being put on a plane heading to Kenya this morning," said Mohamed Ahmed, a member of a militia loyal to Hizbul Islam in Luq.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and 3.8 million people are in dire need of humanitarian food aid for survival.

Kidnappings for ransom have risen in recent years, with journalists and aid workers often targeted.

presstv