I was held hostage for a year

I arrived in Mogadishu in 2008 as a conflict photojournalist to visit a camp for displaced people, accompanied by a Canadian journalist named Amanda. The camp lay in a militia zone and two armed guards set off with us, but they soon jumped out of the car and said it wasn’t safe to go any farther.

About 20 minutes later, masked men with guns surrounded the vehicle, my door was wrenched open and I was flung to the ground. We were driven to a compound and told, “We’re going to hold you for ransom.” They wanted $3m and warned, “If it’s not paid in 24 hours, you’ll be executed.” I knew the Australian government refused to negotiate with terrorists.

At first Amanda and I were kept together in a stifling room with cockroaches and dirty mattresses. I tried to build a rapport with the captor who spoke English and we even converted to Islam to find common ground with our guards. That meant we could no longer share a room, so we communicated by leaving notes in the shared bathroom.

Somalia, Mogadishu

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