The Abu Sayyaf militant group freed a Norwegian hostage in the southern Philippines on Saturday, police said, almost a year after he was seized along with two Canadians who were later beheaded.
The Norwegian man, Kjartan Sekkingstad, was released after the militant group received a ransom of about 30 million pesos (US$627,228), Philippines police said in a statement.
Sekkingstad was freed near the town of Indanan in the province of Sulu, and escorted to the home of the provincial governor. There was no immediate word on the state of his health.
Photo: AFP
His release was facilitated by members of the Moro National Liberation Front, a former rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the Philippines government in the 1990s, police said.
He was kidnapped from a resort on Samal Island on Sept. 21 last year with the Canadians, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and a Filipino, Marites Flor.
Ridsdel was beheaded in April and Hall in June after ransom demands were not met.
Flor was released just days before Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in June.
The Abu Sayyaf group, responsible for some of the country’s worst attacks, including the 2004 bombing of a ferry that killed more than 100 people, had earlier demanded a ransom of 1 billion pesos for each of the hostages. It later lowered the amount to 300 million pesos per hostage.
The Canadian government had steadfastly refused the ransom demands.
Abu Ramie, a spokesman for the militant group, confirmed Sekkingstad’s release on Saturday, saying the group was happy that a ransom had been paid.
The spokesman did not give details on the ransom’s handover.
The group is known to be holding 22 other hostages, including a Dutch bird-watcher kidnapped in 2012.
It was not immediately known who had paid the ransom, or if it was in addition to previous payments.
Last month, Duterte alluded to a 50 million-peso ransom that had been paid to free Sekkingstad despite a government policy against such payments.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not