Somali pirates release Kenyan hostages

MOGADISHU: Three Kenyan aid workers held hostage by pirates in northern Somalia for close to two years have been freed unharmed, their employer said Friday.

International Aid Services was “overjoyed to announce that three of its staff members who were kidnapped in Somalia over 22 months ago have been released and are safe and well,” the organization said in a statement.

Spokesman Andreas Zetterlund said Friday that the release of the three – named as Janet Muthoni Kanga, Martin Mutisya Kioko and Abdinoor Dabaso Bor – was “great news.”

They had been traveling in a convoy guarded by armed police, were seized by gunmen in ambush in the Galkayo area of the northern autonomous Puntland region of Somalia in July 2012. “The kidnappers claimed to be Somali pirates,” the statement added.