Two Kenyan policemen who were being held hostage in Somalia by Shabaab militants for over two years have been freed, Kenya's police chief has said.
The police constables, Joseph Wambugu and Fredrick Chirchir, were kidnapped in an attack in May 2013 in Kenya's north-eastern Garissa district, when four other officers were killed.
Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet
late on Thursday said the two were taken across the porous border into
war-torn Somalia, where “they were moved from one Al-Shabaab hideout to
another in a bid to defeat any rescue efforts by Kenyan security
forces”.
According to him, Wambugu and Chirchir
who were freed on June 25 but whose release was only made public on
Thursday, were in “good health but traumatised.”
Boinnet
gave no details of how they were freed, but thanked the “several
security agencies which undertook this delicate rescue mission.”
Kenyan
troops have been in southern Somalia since 2011 when they crossed into
their neighbour to attack the al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab. They later joined
the African Union force, AMISOM, which is supporting Somalia's
internationally-backed government.
The Shabaa militants who are under pressure in Sumalia is now increasingly targeting Kenya, reports suggest.
The
group has also stepped up attacks during the Muslim fasting month of
Ramadaan, including killing 14 Kenyans on Tuesday in the northern town
of Mandera.
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