Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout is seen with a child in Mogadishu in this undated file photo.
Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, freed after 15 months of captivity in war-torn Somalia, says she was kept isolated in a dark room, beaten and tortured, so she dreamed of walking through Vancouver's Stanley Park to stay sane and not lose hope.
"My day was sitting on a floor in a corner 24 hours a day for the last few months," Lindhout said in an interview with CTV on Wednesday from Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia.
Ms. Lindhout, from Sylvan Lake, Alta., and Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan, were kidnapped Aug. 23, 2008. Both were released Wednesday.
A Somali journalist, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was working as their interpreter, was also kidnapped. Mr. Elmi was released in January 2009.
"There were times I was beaten, I was tortured," said the freelance journalist, her voice breaking. "It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation.
"The money wasn't coming quickly enough for these men, and they seemed to think if they beat me enough, then when I was able to speak with my mother (by phone every couple of months), I would be able to say the right thing to convince her to pay the ransom, which was a million dollars."
She said she tried to convince them her family didn't have a million dollars, but her captors figured all Canadians have that kind of money.
She was moved around the country to 11 different houses, most of the time in Mogadishu.
"There were some pretty dark moments," she said. "It was the idea of coming home, a reunion with my family that kept me going in that darkness.
"In that darkness I would try to escape in my mind to a sunny place, usually Vancouver. I would imagine running around Stanley Park, and that would keep me going."
Canada's department of Foreign Affairs would not immediately comment on news of Ms. Lindhout's release.
"We are aware of the reports. We will not comment or release any information which may endanger the safety of a Canadian or other citizen," a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in an e-mail.
The journalists were seized while travelling to camps outside Mogadishu for Somalis displaced by the violence in the Horn of Africa nation.
A Somali member of parliament told Reuters that the two journalists were brought from southern Mogadishu by militiamen and were then handed over to the people who had negotiated the release.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government for 18 years. The Western-backed administration of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is battling al Shabaab and other rebel groups, and controls little more than a few parts of the capital Mogadishu.
Lawless Somalia is a dangerous place for foreign aid workers and journalists as they risk being kidnapped and held by gunmen until a ransom is paid. Many local aid workers and journalists have been killed, however.
More than 200 foreign hostages, seized along with ships by pirates, are also being held off the coast of Somalia.
With reports from Jill Mahoney and Reuters