American Aid Worker, Kidnapped For Second Time, Escapes From Captors’ Car In Somalia

Tue., July 29, 1997

Associated Press

A U.S. aid worker was kidnapped in western Somalia, only to escape unharmed within hours, the U.S. Embassy said Monday.

Somali kidnappers seized Daniel Suther at Belet Huen near the border with Ethiopia on Friday. He escaped shortly afterward, jumping out of his captors’ car when it stopped at an intersection and then hiding in brush overnight.

“It was tense,” Suther, 30, told Voice of America. “But I’ll go back there anytime. Just give me a time to rest.”

Suther was flown to Nairobi on Sunday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Nairobi said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It was the second time Suther had been kidnapped in Somalia - in September, abductors in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, seized him and held him for a day.

Suther said he had heard his captors Friday talking about ransom.

Banditry and abductions are common in Somalia.

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American Aid Worker, Kidnapped For Second Time, Escapes From Captors’ Car In Somalia

Jesse Tinsley

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Rob Curley

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