A US tourist and her guide have been rescued after they were kidnapped at gunpoint while on safari in Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kimberly Endicott, 35, and Jean-Paul Mirenge were set upon as they drove through the Queen Elizabeth National Park on the evening of 2 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ugandan Police said then that kidnappers used one of their phones to demand a ransom of $500,000 (\u00a3383,435).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials have now said the pair are “unharmed, in good health and in the safe hands of the joint security team”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Search teams from the military, the Ugandan wildlife authority and a special police tourist protection force worked together to rescue Ms Endicott and Mr Mirenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo tweeted that they were rescued “by Ugandan security forces in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo]”, and that they were now in Kanungu in Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Queen Elizabeth National Park runs along part of the country’s border with DR Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agence France-Presse quotes the tour company, Wild Frontiers Safaris, saying that the pair were freed after a ransom was paid to their kidnappers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump also tweeted about the rescue: “Pleased to report that the American tourist and tour guide that were abducted in Uganda have been released. God bless them and their families!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the kidnapping, police officials had said that a group of four gunmen “put the tourists on gun point, and grabbed two out of four tourists, before disappearing with them”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other two tourists – reportedly an elderly couple – were rescued soon afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the return of Ms Endicott and Mr Mirenge, Mr Trump urged the Ugandan government to apprehend those responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A US tourist and her guide have been rescued after they were kidnapped at gunpoint while on safari in Uganda. Kimberly Endicott, 35, and Jean-Paul Mirenge were set upon as they drove through the Queen Elizabeth National Park on the evening of 2 April. Ugandan Police said then that kidnappers used one of their phones to demand a ransom of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bbc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3640,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3639\/revisions\/3640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}