Japanese doctor expresses gratitude for efforts for her release+

PARIS, Jan. 10 Kyodo - Japanese doctor Keiko Akahane, who was freed Wednesday after having been abducted in Ethiopia in September, expressed her gratitude to those who worked for her release when she met reporters Saturday.

Akahane, 32, thanked the staff of the medical aid group Doctors of the World
and all those who made efforts to gain her release and said she is happy to
have survived and been freed.
Akahane and Dutch nurse Wilhem Sools, 27, gave a press conference at the Paris
headquarters of the aid group for which they work.
Akahane, a graduate student of Nagasaki University, said she met family members
after her arrival in Paris from Nairobi earlier on Saturday. Her mother Chieko,
64, and elder brother Chihiro, 34, were in Paris to meet her.
Akahane and Sools initially stayed in Nairobi after their release.
The two were abducted by an armed group on Sept. 22, 2008, in the Ogaden region
of eastern Ethiopia, about 80 kilometers from the Somali border.
They were transferred to Somalia after their kidnapping and were taken to
different locations within the country, according to the group.
==Kyodo