SOMALIA: HOSTAGES STILL ALIVE AND WELL DESPITE THREAT TO THEIR LIVES

Описание: (20 Apr 1998) Natural Sound

Ten hostages held by Somali gunmen were still alive and well on Monday despite earlier threats against them.

The hostages, who are mainly aid workers with the International Red Cross, have been held in a house in Mogadishu since Wednesday.

The ten hostages appeared to be calm, and in good health despite their ordeal following their capture by Somali kidnappers last week at an airstrip in northern Mogadishu.

The prisoners, who are all aid workers with the International Red Cross, include two Swiss, a Norwegian, a German, a Belgian, a French nurse, a naturalised American Somali and a Somali.

Two of the hostages are pilots from Kenya and South Africa.

Earlier on Monday the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was becoming increasingly concerned for the hostages' safety after television pictures showed them being threatened with firearms.

But on Monday the hostages didn't appear to be in immediate danger and negotiations are continuing for their release.

The kidnappers are believed to be renegade members of the Abgal clan which controls northern Mogadishu.

Elders from the clan reported little progress in talks with the kidnappers.

It is hoped faction leader Al Mahdi Mohamed, and three other warlords, may have more success.

Unconfirmed reports indicate the kidnappers may be trying to use the captives as bargaining chips in talks amongst faction leaders to decide who will be Mogadishu's first post-war governor.

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