Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and her Australian colleague, photographer Nigel Brennan, were nearly rescued on numerous occasions during the course of their kidnapping, according to Somalia’s prime minister.

“I think we came close several times, although we have not gone into detail to any media outlets,” Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told CTV News Channel on Friday.

Because their kidnappers moved the pair from location to location, however, he said it became difficult to track where they were being held.

“They were kept sometimes outside of the capital, which the government has no control over,” he said.

Sharmarke described news of Lindhout and Brennan’s release on Wednesday, after 15 months of captivity, as “a moment of joy.”

“I just wish them really the best of luck,” Sharmarke said by phone from Mogadishu.

On Thursday, Lindhout and Brennan were flown out of Somali and reunited with family members in Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. They were taken to hospital for medical testing and there has been no word yet on their condition.

Sarah Geddes, a spokesperson for the Lindhout’s family, said the Alberta native will fly to Canada as soon as she is “fit to fly home.”

“Amanda’s parents are overjoyed and request continued privacy for the family while they focus on Amanda and her transition back to normal life,” Geddes said.

Lindhout, 28, has reported from overseas for Alberta’s Red Deer Advocate newspaper and was reportedly in Somalia doing freelance work for the French television station France 24.

She and Brennan were held against their will in Somalia, a war-torn and lawless country in the horn of Africa, by unidentified abductors since Aug. 23, 2008.

Lindhout spoke to CTV News Channel only hours after her release, describing a months-long ordeal that saw her beaten and tortured and forced to live in a room without windows.

“It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day,” Lindhout told CTV during a telephone interview from Mogadishu on the day she was freed.

Prior to leaving Mogadishu on Thursday, the two journalists met with Sharmarke, who said the pair had been held in an area controlled by Islamic insurgents.

The precise details of Lindhout and Brennan’s release are not clear. Lindhout said money “was paid by our families,” and a statement from Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that “the Government of Canada was not involved in ransom negotiations.”

The exact amount of ransom exchanged for Lindhout and Brennan is unknown.

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CTV NEWS