NAIROBI - A JAPANESE doctor and a Dutch nurse kidnapped in Somalia last September while working for a French medical charity have been freed, the organisation said on Wednesday.

'Medecins du Monde announces the release of its two volunteers, Keiko Akahane and Wilhem Sools, abducted on Sept 22, 2008 in Ethiopia and held in Somalia. They were freed at midday (0900 GMT, 5pm Singapore time) and are safe.

'The agency welcomes the release and expresses solidarity with other people still being held in Somalia and calls for their quick release,' the Paris-based charity said in a statement on its website.

A Somali armed group that snatched the pair in a drought-stricken village in Ethiopia had demanded US$3 million (S$4.4 million) in ransom, but the agency did not say whether any money was paid for their freedom.

Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen expressed delight at news of the pair's release, adding that Dutchman Mr Sools and his Japanese colleague Dr Akahane appeared to be in good health.

'Minister Verhagen is happy for Mr Sools and his family that this difficult period is now over,' a foreign ministry statement said, while also praising Medicins du Monde's 'ardent efforts' to secure their release.

Armed gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings across the lawless Horn of Africa country, often targeting either foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.

At the weekend, two foreign journalists, a Briton and a Spaniard were freed after almost six weeks in captivity in Somalia's breakaway Puntland state.

On Tuesday, gunmen killed a Somali aid worker with the World Food Programme (WFP) in the violence-plagued nation's southern Gedo region, becoming the agency's third worker to be slain in since August 2008.

In November, gunmen raided an airstrip in central Somalia and kidnapped four foreign aid workers with the French NGO 'Action Contre la Faim' (ACF - Action Against Hunger) and their two pilots.

Aid organisations have warned that one of the world's worst humanitarian crises is unfolding in Somalia and complained that attacks and kidnappings had made their operations virtually impossible to sustain.

According to the WFP, 3.25 million of Somalia's 10 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Somalia has lacked an effective government and any credible centralised security apparatus since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamad Siad Barre touched a bloody power struggle. -- AFP