Shekosh Reports

The plane’s pilot outwitted the hijackers and delivered them to the police in Bosasso, in the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland.

“They wanted to kidnap two German journalists who were leaving the country for Djibouti after working in Puntland for several days,” the governor of Puntland’s Bari region, Muse Gele Farole, told AFP.

The hijackers asked to be flown to Las Qorey, a town in a disputed region straddling Puntland and the neighbouring semi-autonomous state of Somaliland, but the pilots landed back in Bosasso.

“The police forces foiled the attempt and arrested the two hijackers and several others who cooperated with them,” the governor said. “One of them tried to escape but the police shot him in the leg.”

Puntland’s internal security minister, Abdullahi Said Samatar, told reporters that the two journalists’ fixer was also arrested following the incident but later cleared and released.

“We have information that some people at the airport helped the kidnappers board the plane with guns but we are still investigating the matter,” Bosasso police officer Mohamed Weli told AFP.

“Some people were arrested and we are still pursuing five others, including security personnel believed to have been involved in the plot,” he added.

A senior official from Daallo Airlines who asked not to be named confirmed the incident.

“The pilots managed to land the plane at Bosasso airport, ignoring the orders of the hijackers. The plane later continued its trip to Djibouti safely,” he said.

Several foreign journalists have been kidnapped in the area around Bosasso, a port on the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden and the economic capital of Puntland, over the past two years.

source: France 24, International News