Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Mogadishu (AFP) - A French journalist held hostage for eight days in northern Somalia and freed on Christmas eve has left the country to return home to France, local authorities said on Tuesday.
"The French journalist accompanied by a French diplomat left for Djibouti" early on Tuesday, said Bile Mohamud Qabowsade, an official at the information ministry of Puntland, the breakaway Somali state where cameraman Gwen Le Gouil was captured on December 16.
The French journalist was freed by his captors on Monday.
Le Gouil, who was not harmed during his captivity, is expected to fly back to France directly from Djibouti, which neighbours Somalia.
The journalist had travelled to the Puntland port of Bosasso to film a documentary on the mass smuggling of refugees from Somalia and other war-torn Horn of Africa countries across the Gulf of Aden.
Source: AFP, Dec 25, 2007