For 15 months, Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout endured abuse, illness and the threat of death after her kidnapping in Somalia in 2008. Now, the RCMP say they’ve arrested the “main negotiator” for the kidnappers. Here’s a primer on Ms. Lindhout’s captivity and how she was freed.
(More: Full timeline of her 15 months in captivity)
(Watch: RCMP speak about the alleged kidnapper)
Why was she in Somalia?
Ms. Lindhout, then 26, was working as a freelance journalist covering humanitarian crises in Somalia in 2008. She and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan decided to invesitgate a refugee camp, and set off with a Somali reporter acting as their translator and two drivers.
“I’d like to say that I hesitated before heading into Somalia, but I didn’t,” Ms. Lindhout, who was aware that several international organizations had pulled out of the country because of escalating danger, writes in her book, A House in the Sky. “If anything, my experiences had taught me that while terror and strife hogged the international headlines, there was always – really, truly always – something more hopeful and humane running alongside it.”
(From the archives: First reports of Lindhout’s abduction)
Who kidnapped her?
Gunmen abducted the group outside Mogadishu on Aug. 23, 2008. Abductions of journalists and aid workers are common in Somalia, a country riven by civil war since 1991. Two weeks after the abduction, their captors asked for a ransom of $2.5-million (U.S.).
(From the archives: Kidnappers make ransom demand)
What happened to her?
The two Western captives were kept in isolation from one another in rough conditions, and Ms. Lindhout was regularly beaten. The months in captivity took a heavy toll on her physical and mental health. In a CTV News interview in June, 2009, she described being “kept in a dark, windowless room in chains without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I’ve been very sick for months without any medicine.”
Daydreams about Stanley Park in Vancouver, food and freedom helped her pass the time and hold on to hope, Ms. Lindhout writes in her book. “I could pass two hours imagining one meal in granular detail, the ecstasy of making an omelet, for example.”
(From the archives: ‘My life is worth more than any money’)
When was she released?
The Somali translator and the drivers were freed on Jan. 15, 2009, but Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan were not released until Nov. 25, after a ransom payment to the captors. She finally returned to Canadian soil on Dec. 9.
(From the archives: Lindhout’s full statement after being freed)
Who paid for her release?
Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan’s families first turned to the Canadian and Australian governments for help. The governments were reluctant to pay for fear of encouraging more such kidnappings. After more than a year without results, the families sought the help of a British private security firm, AKE, to deliver a reported $600,000 ransom.
(From the archives: Lindhout ransom sparked international tug-of-war)
How has she remembered the experience?
In 2013, Ms. Lindhout published a book about her captivity, A House in the Sky. The movie options to the book were bought by Annapurna Pictures last year.
Despite the traumatic memories it held, Ms. Lindhout returned to Somalia in 2011 after launching the Global Enrichment Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to support development and female empowerment in the country. She regularly gives speeches about forgiveness, compassion and social responsibility.
(From the archives: Read Graeme Smith’s review of her book)
With reports from Sahar Fatima, Tu Thanh Ha, Colin Freeze, Jill Mahoney and The Canadian Press