By Magdalene Mukami
NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – A Kenyan woman held captive by Somali pirates for nearly three years was rescued by special forces from Somalia’s Galmudug State in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Local media reports from Somalia indicate that the Dahir Farah, Galmudug’s deputy information minister, confirmed the operation to free Louis Njoki.
Also confirming the rescue to Kenya’s Star newspaper was Andrew Mwangura, a negotiator between pirates and ship owners and head of the Seafarers Assistance Program, who said, "It [the rescue] was a well-coordinated operation where they managed to rescue her. Shots were fired during the raid, but it's not clear if they were any casualties.”
The news comes just a week after 26 sailors from East Asia who were held captive by Somali pirates for four years were freed and flown to Kenya, where they received treatment before catching flights home.
Acts of piracy off the Somali coast rose after 2005, costing shipping companies billions of dollars, but have declined in recent years due to beefed-up naval patrols and greater security aboard merchant ships.
Njoki had been captured by Somali pirates in November 2014 while ferrying homeopathic medicine to Somalia along with her colleague, James Gachamba Kuria, who was also freed in February by Galmudug State forces.