ROME (AP) — Two Italians kidnapped in Somalia have been released, Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday, months after men armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades surrounded the aid workers' house and took them away in blindfolds.
Franco Frattini told parliament that Iolanda Occhipinti and Giuliano Paganini were in good condition and had been taken by plane to Nairobi, Kenya, where there were in the care of the local Italian Embassy.
"It was so sudden, I kept asking: 'Is it really you? Is it really you?"' Fulvia Cappello, Paganini's wife, told RAI state TV after she received a phone call from her husband. "It seemed incredible."
Occhipinti's son, Gianni Tumino, got a call too: "She said 'It's mum, I'm fine, they freed me this morning."'
Gunmen seized the Italians along with a Somali colleague in an attack May 21 in Awdhigle, a southern Somalian village about 45 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu.
Franco Frattini told parliament that Iolanda Occhipinti and Giuliano Paganini were in good condition and had been taken by plane to Nairobi, Kenya, where there were in the care of the local Italian Embassy.
"It was so sudden, I kept asking: 'Is it really you? Is it really you?"' Fulvia Cappello, Paganini's wife, told RAI state TV after she received a phone call from her husband. "It seemed incredible."
Occhipinti's son, Gianni Tumino, got a call too: "She said 'It's mum, I'm fine, they freed me this morning."'
Gunmen seized the Italians along with a Somali colleague in an attack May 21 in Awdhigle, a southern Somalian village about 45 miles south of the capital, Mogadishu.
