July 2001 Africa News Headlines

BUTEMBO - Congolese militiamen have freed 17 Thais and a Kenyan whom they took hostage in a remote jungle area last May, witnesses said yesterday.

The hostages left a camp of the so-called Mai Mai militia at Vihya, 30 km northwest of Butembo, at 7:00pm on Saturday after nearly two and half months in captivity, the witnesses said.

The militia, who oppose foreign-backed rebel groups holding a large area of northeastern Congo, originally seized 24 Thais, the Kenyan and a Swede in mid-May from the compound of a Thai timber company which operates sawmills at Mangina, near the Congolese town of Beni.

The group freed seven Thais in mid-June in exchange for medicines, and the Swede, who ran a trucking company which provided vehicles for the sawmills, on June 30 in return for a truck.

When the hostages were seized, the kidnappers demanded the withdrawal from Congo of all Ugandan and Rwandan forces who invaded in 1998 to try to overthrow the government in Kinshasa.

- Nampa-Reuters

•  Big Brother Africa 3: The audacity of Hazel!
•  Big Brother Africa 3: Who's your winner?