Amanda Lindhout, Freelance Journalist, fears dying in Captivity

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | June 10, 2009 at 07:23 pm

2595 views | 58 Recommendations | 12 comments

A woman, claiming to be a Canadian freelance journalist from Alberta, called the CTV National Newsroom today. She appeared to be reading from a prepared statement. In the statement she said that she appealed for help from the Canadian government, since she feared dying in captivity.

She said that she had been in captivity for 10 months without clean drinking water. She claimed that she got very little food. Her statement complained of being held by gunmen in a dark room. She also stated that she had been sick and was not provided with medicine.

Lindhout, a freelance journalist from Sylvan Lake, Alberta, near Edmonton, appealed for the Canadian Government to help her family with the ransom. Without it I will die here she said.

Lindhout went to Somalia, to cover the famine, on August 20th, for a French television station.

Here is a CTV story published 12 June discussing a comparison of public pressure exerted in the Lindhout case, opposed to that when Robert Fowler was kidnapped.

A woman claiming to be Amanda Lindhout, a freelance Canadian journalist being held hostage in Somalia, called CTV's National newsroom Wednesday afternoon, appearing to be reading from a statement in which she says she fears dying in captivity and pleads with the Canadian government to help bring her home.

"I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months. I'm in a desperate situation, I'm being kept in a dark, windowless room in chains, without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine," she told CTV News.

Well, Some thing sounds fishy here. A ransom demand after 10 month? I am sorry to say but the only way out of the kidnapping game is to stop paying ransoms.

It may sound harsh, but there is no other way.

Its a true story I have read about the kidnapping before... Maybe this will help..

Amanda Lindhout is a freelance television and print reporter from Red Deer in Alberta. She filed stories from Iraq on behalf of Press TV, Iran's 24-hour English-language news channel and formerly reported from Baghdad. She had been on a tour through Africa to put together freelance reports for a French television network.[1] Amanda Lindhout had significant experience reporting from the world's trouble spots, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

[edit] Kidnapping
On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped by unknown gunmen while en route to Hawa Abdi refugee camp in Afgooye, 28 kilometres southwest of the capital Mogadishu, along with the Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan from Sylvan Lake, Alberta, the Somali fixer and photojournalist Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, the driver from the Shamo Hotel "Marwali" and the group’s driver Mahad Isse. Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brenna had been friends for years and had travelled to Iraq together a few years ago, said Brennan's friend Larine Statham, who worked with him at a local newspaper in Bundaberg.[2]

The Arabic television news channel Al Jazeera broadcasted a film clip of Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan in captivity on September 17, 2008. The video showed Amanda wearing an Arab robe and surrounded by gunmen.[3] On October 13, 2008, the abductors in Somalia said that if if a $2.5 million ransom was not paid in 15 days, the journalists would be killed.[4] The Canadian authorities are working hard to free Amanda Lindhout. The Somalian journalist Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi and the drivers Marwali and Mahad Isse were released on January 15, 2009.

As of January 23, 2009, the Somalia kidnappers have lowered their ransom demand to $1,000,000 USD.

There was a unconfirmed report she had been rapped and made pregnant.

10 Months???

That is too long a time for such a thing to go unnoticed.

Good job in getting the story noticed. It is frightening to know media/gov would keep a lid on something like this.

It looks like the part of problem is that Amanda was working for the wrong side. There is plenty of stuff going on in Somalia that could be considered embarassing.

PRESS TV has been following the story from the beginning and you can see the articles she has written for them at this link.

Thanks for this utileastwind.

Well it is sad and horifying to know that still nobody assist her. Goverment like Canada should directly look into these matters. 10 months is too late and why her own news agency not making any efferts to take her back ?

We do know that Somalia is famous for its pirates who hold 'rich' people and cargo for ransom. If 'rich' countries pay ransom isn't that an invitation to kidnap more people?

I agree with your comment. I suppose there will be a lot of pressure from the family though. It will also be hard for a government not to try to help one of its citizens.

lets get this girl home, enough is enough!!! the only question i have is what can i do to help

From a newsreport I saw yesterday the governing body of Somalia is apparently in negotiations to get her and two others freed. I have been googling for more news on it but haven't been able to find anything.