News Digest

Philippine militants release two German hostages: military

Two Germans held hostage by Islamic militants on remote southern Philippine islands for six months were released on Friday, the Philippine military said. Stefan Okonek, who is in his 70s, and his partner Henrike Dielen, in her 50s, were released on Jolo island, armed forces chief General Gregorio Catapang told AFP. A spokesman for the kidnappers, a notorious band of militants with links to Al-Qaeda but who recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, also announced on radio that they had been set free. The Abu Sayyaf had given the German government until Friday to pay a $5.6-million ransom and withdraw its support for U.S. offensives against jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

We are relieved to confirm that the two Germans are no longer in the hands of their kidnappers. They are being taken care of at the embassy in Manila. We thank the government of the Philippines for their close collaboration, undertaken with full confidence.

A German foreign ministry spokesman

Philippine authorities said the two hostages were snatched at sea in April as they sailed near the western Philippine island of Palawan. Last week in another telephone interview, an Abu Sayyaf spokesman had the couple beg for their lives and recount their hardships while being held at gunpoint in remote island jungles. Labelled a terrorist group by the United States and Philippine governments, the Abu Sayyaf is a loose band of a few hundred militants founded in the 1990s. The Abu Sayyaf claims it is fighting to establish an independent Islamic homeland in the Muslim populated south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.