Two Aid Workers Freed in Somalia After 21 Months

A combination of two handout pictures shows MSF Spanish aid workers Monserrat Serra (L) and Blanca Thiebaut, who were kidnapped almost two years ago in Kenya and then and then held in Somalia, who now have been freed, MSF said on July 18, 2013.

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says two female aid workers have been released in Somalia after 21 months in captivity.

The aid group said Thursday that Spanish nationals Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut are safe and healthy, and are eager to rejoin their loved ones.

A statement provided no details on their release except that they were freed in Somalia. The group said it would reveal more at a news conference Friday in Madrid.

The aid group, known by its French acronym MSF, says the two women were abducted from the Ifo-2 refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, on October 13, 2011, while working on the construction of a hospital.

The sprawling Dadaab complex is home to hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees. Kenya sent troops into Somalia that same month after blaming militant group al-Shabab for a series of kidnappings in the north.