The two foreign aid workers abducted earlier this week in Somalia are being held by a local pirate group, according to elders in the coastal district of Hobyo, a known pirate den in the country.
The two, a Danish man and an American women, are being held hostages for ransom near the village of Dabagalo, according to Mohamed Jama, an elder from the district, Agence France-Presse reports.
The two were kidnapped alongside a local colleague while traveling near the town of Galkayo in the semiautonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia. The Somali man is now in police custody and is being questioned over his involvement in the incident, the Danish Refugee Council, which employs the three, has announced.
On Thursday (Oct. 27), the Danish Refugee Councilidentified the two kidnapped aid workers as Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted.
“The Danish Refugee Council is in close contact with the aid workers’ relatives, who are deeply concerned and affected by the situation,” the group said in a statement, according to CNN.
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