HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - A German aid worker kidnapped in northwestern Somalia has been freed, his employer and a Somali official said on Wednesday.
"He's free and well," a spokeswoman for the German AgroAction (GAA), also known as Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, said,adding the man had contacted several colleagues in Somalia.
The aid worker was kidnapped during a car ambush on Tuesdayin Era Gabo, a town in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.
The enclave's Interior Minister Abdillahi Ismail Ali saidsecurity forces freed the kidnapped man early Wednesday morningafter fighting off six gunmen who had abducted him.
"The government of Somaliland will not at any timenegotiate with terrorists who commit such acts. This is part ofour policy," Ali told Reuters.
Kidnapping of aid workers and foreigners is common inSomalia but captives are generally treated well because theircaptors consider them an investment for which they can earn aransom. Authorities generally blame militant Islamists forattacks on foreigners.
The attack occurred in Sanag region, a disputed area thatSomaliland and neighbouring semi-autonomous Puntland have longfought over.
Although Somaliland and Puntland have enjoyed relativepeace compared to southern Somalia where the interim governmentis fighting an Islamist insurgency, the north has increasinglybecome associated with kidnappings for ransom.
Somaliland broke away in 1991 when warlords toppledmilitary dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunging the Horn ofAfrica country into anarchy. It has governed itself since, butits claim of independence has not been internationallyrecognised.
(Reporting by Thorsten Severin in Berlin and Hussein AliNur in Hargeisa; Writing by Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by KeithWeir)