Italian govt hails release of volunteer kidnapped in Kenya

FILE - In this August 2018 file photo, Italian volunteer Silvia Costanza Romano, left, poses with local resident Ronald Kazungu Ngala, 19, in the village of Chakama, in coastal Kilifi county, Kenya. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has announced that an Italian aid worker kidnapped in late 2018 while she was working in Kenya has been freed. Conte tweeted Saturday: “Silvia Romano has been freed. Thanks to the men and women of the foreign intelligence services. Silvia, we’re waiting for you in Italy!” (AP Photo, File)

ROME — Officials in Italy say an Italian aid worker who was kidnapped in Kenya in late 2018 has been freed.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Saturday hailed the release of Silvia Romano, who was a 23-year-old volunteer with the Italian-based humanitarian group Africa Milele when she was abducted in the coastal trading centre of Chakama.

Conte tweeted: “Thanks to the men and women of the foreign intelligence services. Silvia, we’re waiting for you in Italy!”

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who also announced Romano’s liberation on Twitter, said, “The government never leaves anyone behind.”

After her kidnapping, Romano ended up in Somalia in the hands of an armed group linked to al-Shabab Islamic extremists, according to Italian news reports.

Al-Shabab militants have been blamed for a series of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenya’s coast. Kenya said the abductions of four foreigners prompted it to send troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab members.

The Associated Press