NAIROBI, Jan 4: Two journalists, from Britain and Spain, were released on Sunday after almost six weeks in captivity in Somalia’s breakaway Puntland state, police and the Spanish government said.

“The two journalists are free after their ordeals,” said the head of Puntland police, Abdullahi Said Samatar.

“They’re taking some rest now and they will be available later. I’m happy to see them recovering their freedom.”

The release was confirmed by the Spanish government in Madrid, whose ambassador to Kenya was en route to Puntland from Nairobi to meet British writer Colin Freeman and Spanish photographer Jose Cendon on Sunday afternoon.

Samatar said the duo was recovering in a hotel room, and staff at the hotel in the International Village in Bosasso, Puntland’s economic capital, said the two “look in good condition”.

Freeman and Cendon were in the country to report on piracy in an assignment for England’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. Cendon worked for a variety of media throughout east Africa.

They were seized on November 26 on their way to Bosasso’s airport along with two Somali journalists who had been assisting them.

Puntland serves as base for pirates who are credited with over 100 attacks on ships off Somali waters throughout 2008.

Regional governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf said at the end of November that police suspected involvement by the two Somalis. There was no news Sunday of their whereabouts.

While there was no claim of responsibility for the abductions, Puntland’s deputy minister for seaports Abdulkebir Musa said in the days following their kidnapping that the journalists were being held in a territory controlled by a clan figures with close links to pirates.

Britain and Spain had set up a crisis cell to assist police in negotiations, which began with local elders within days of their disappearance.—AFP