Freed hostages arrive in Kampala

Seventeen Thais and a Kenyan national freed on Sunday by a Mayi-Mayi tribal militia calling itself the Lumumbist National Resistance in the northeastern DRC town of Butembo have arrived in Kampala, Colonel Kahinda Otafiire, the Ugandan state minister for regional cooperation, told government-owned ‘New Vision’ newspaper on Monday. “They have arrived. But I am not aware of how long they will be in Kampala,” Otafiire was quoted as saying. The hostages, employees of the Thai-Ugandan Dara Forest logging company, were abducted on 15 May at Dara Forest’s sawmills at Mangina, near Beni. “They are here but very tired. Thank God, they have been freed,” Prossy Balaba, a Dara Forest director, was quoted as saying.

The hostages were released without condition after Francois Lumumba, eldest son of the DRC’s first prime minister, the late Patrice Lumumba, spent six days in negotiations. The Mayi-Mayi, who have said they are opposed to foreign troops and foreign-backed rebel groups, originally seized a Swede, a Kenyan and 24 Thais. The Mayi-Mayi freed seven Thais and the Swede in June.