UPDATES THROUGHOUT
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – A Norwegian held hostage by a Daesh-linked militant group in the southern Philippines has been released after nearly a year in the Abu Sayyaf’s captivity.
Peace process adviser Jesus Dureza said a statement Saturday that said Kjartan Sekkingstad was released in the afternoon and would be transported from the island province of Sulu to Davao City on Sunday morning.
He added that until then Sekkingstad would be hosted by a fugitive founder of a Muslim rebel group that is engaged in a peace process with the government, Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Dureza said Misuari “volunteered to host his stay due to heavy rains and nightfall” and quoted Sekkingstad as saying “thank you to President [Rodrigo] Duterte.”
A police intelligence officer had earlier told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media that Sekkingstad was freed into the care of an MNLF commander who facilitated his release in Indanan town in Sulu.
Sekkingstad was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf from a resort on the island of Samal in September last year alongside two Canadians and a Filipina.
The Canadians were beheaded earlier this year and the Filipina released after the reported payment of a ransom.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ramie as saying that Sekkingstad was readied for release Friday night, with the group awaiting the delivery of a 30 million peso (more than $627,000) ransom.
In August, President Rodrigo Duterte said 50 million pesos (more than $1 million) had already been paid for his release.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.
It is one of two militant groups in the south to have pledged allegiance to Daesh, prompting fears during the stalling of a peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that it could make inroads in a region torn by decades of armed conflict.
In 2013, Misuari’s MNLF faction laid siege to the majority-Christian city of Zamboanga to protest a peace process by the MILF, which Misuari claims leaves Muslims in the country’s south shortchanged in comparison to an earlier MNLF peace deal.