A German national and his wife, who were kidnapped in Puntland late Saturday night were forcibly freed by police, officials confirmed to NewsBlaze on Monday.
“The (police) have been given (the task) to carry out to set free the hostages by force,” Bosaso city governor Muse Ghelle Yusuf, told Newsblaze, adding that the troops would trail any abductor in Puntland.
Eyewitnesses told Newsblaze that the troops surrounded a hilly location where the hostages were held, releasing them and taking the kidnappers into custody.
Asked whether the authorities would attack the pirates holding ten ships, Mr. Yusuf declined to respond.
Yusuf added that one of abductors was injured in the attack.
The German man has been in Puntland for several weeks to spend his time with his local wife. His name has not been released.
There was no comment from German officials on this matter.
With rampant piracy and rising insecurity in the Horn of Africa nation, sea transport is the last lifeline of some 3.2 million Somalis in need of food aid.
Somalia has been without an effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre set off a deadly power struggle.
