Two Thai hostages released

Two Thai nationals were on Tuesday night released by their Mayi-Mayi captors in northeastern DRC, a source from the Thai embassy in Nairobi confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday. The two were reportedly in Butembo. “The release came to us as a surprise because since the abduction, the Mayi-Mayi have been promising to release five or 10 people,” he explained. “In fact many times the local bishop who has been mediating in this case, has had to send a car to pick up ‘released hostages’ but none have appeared.” Although the two are were in “relatively good”, they were “emotionally depressed”, which also applied to the rest still in captivity. “The captors used to threaten them that they would do something harmful, but with the mediation of the bishop they more or less stopped the threats,” the source added. Two weeks ago, a minister from Thailand and the country’s representative in Nairobi, Kenya, travelled to Kampala to try and coordinate the release of the 24 Thais in all, who were kidnapped on 15 May alongside a Kenyan and a Swede. The Thais worked for the Dara-Forest company, a logging company based in Mangina near Butembo, northeastern DRC. The company is a Thai-Uganda venture. The source said the Mayi-Mayi demands were “unclear”. In a declaration on 1 June, the group had stated that they would release the hostages in exchange for the “unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops on Congolese soil”.