Italian returns home after hostage ordeal

[iolsa]

Rome - An Italian aid worker kidnapped 10 months ago with two colleagues in north Africa has returned home.

Rossella Urru was embraced by her family and greeted by Italian Premier Mario Monti late Thursday as she disembarked from a jet at Rome's Ciampino airport.

Urru and Spaniards Enric Gonyalons and Ainhoa Fernandez del Rincon were kidnapped from a refugee camp in southern Algeria last October and then held in north Mali.

The jihadist group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, known as MUJAO by its French acronym, freed them Wednesday.

Urru told reporters she had been treated well during her ordeal and wanted to return to work. She acknowledged that aid work was dangerous and risky, "but I hope this doesn't stop me or other people." - Sapa-AP



IOLSA