Japanese Doctor Kidnapped in Ethiopia Released: Japan Govt

Tokyo, Jan. 8 (Jiji Press)--A female Japanese doctor abducted by an
armed group in Ethiopia last September was released unharmed, the Japanese
Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
The ministry was informed of the release of the doctor, Keiko
Akahane, 32, who belongs to Paris-based international medical group Medecins
du Monde, or Doctors of the World, on Wednesday night by the embassy in
Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said in a
statement.
According to the medical group, Akahane was freed with a male Dutch
nurse, on Wednesday afternoon local time. A government source said that she
is now staying in Nairobi and is safe.
She will go back to Paris on Saturday, a diplomatic source said.
Akahane, along with the Dutch aid worker, were abducted by an armed
group in the southeastern Ethiopia region of Ogaden on Sept. 22, 2008, and
were taken to Somalia, the medical group said.
The Japanese ministry did not unveil details, including where she
was released and whether ransom was paid to the armed group. According to a
media report, the armed group demanded 3 million dollars in ransom for their
release as the Ethiopian government rejected the group's demand for the
release of Somali prisoners.
Nakasone said in the statement that Japan condemns the abduction as
a despicable criminal act and that nothing justifies such act.
He added Somalia is effectively in a state of anarchy and that
abduction and various other crimes take place in the East African country.
Japan will continue to cooperate in the international community for
peace in Somalia, based on the view that the country's peace and stability
bear significance for the stability in the Horn of Africa region and for
international antiterrorism efforts, Nakasone said.
Akahane became a doctor after graduating from then Toyama Medical
and Pharmaceutical University in 2002. She studied infectious diseases at a
Nagasaki University graduate school since April 2007 and then joined the
medical group. She expressed her intention last March to go to Ethiopia for
six months to engage in medical services.