An Australian humanitarian worker kidnapped in Afghanistan in April has been released, Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has revealed.
Kerry Jane Wilson was abducted on 28 April in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, where she was working for Zardozi, a small Afghan non-governmental organisation.
“I confirm that Kerry Jane Wilson has been released, and she is now safe and well,” Bishop said on Monday. “I am relieved for Kerry Jane, and her family with whom I have remained in close contact.
“I deeply appreciate the work of the authorities in Afghanistan whose support and assistance facilitated her release, as well as Australian consular staff who continue to provide assistance to Ms Wilson and her family.”
Bishop said the government would not comment on the circumstances of Wilson’s release “to protect those who remain captive or face the risk of kidnapping in Afghanistan and elsewhere”.
“Her family has asked for privacy,” the minister’s statement concluded.
In April Wilson’s father, Brian, told the ABC: “I presume she’s a hostage, and that they’ll do their best to keep her alive and not harm her, simply because they want to have something or other in return and it’s not very good having a dead hostage.
“She’s on the security network, it’s always dangerous. There’s always peril in the background.”
NDS, the Afghan intelligence agency, says Wilson was not released by her captors, but in a special forces operation where they also arrested some suspects.
Wilson had worked in the region for more than 20 years with charities related to women’s rights and water security, he said.
Zardozi, of which Wilson is executive director, helps women in poor urban areas start small businesses selling handicrafts and clothing to shopkeepers and traders.
She was previously chief of programs with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees.
