Filipino sisters freed from eight months of captivity
Filipino-Algerian sisters Nadjoua and Linda Bansil escape Abu Sayyaf captors after eight months
Two Filipino sisters kidnapped by Muslim extremists eight months ago escaped their captors in the jungles of the southern Philippines and told authorities they were kept in isolation in a hut on a meagre diet.
Nadjoua and Linda Bansil were abducted by the brutal militant group Abu Sayyaf when they travelled to the restive Jolo island, the militant stronghold, for a video documentary about the lives and poor coffee farmers in the predominantly Muslim region.
They said that their captors often kept them in isolation in the mountain and the cat gave them company and pleasure
Philippine marines found them before nightfall on Thursday in Buhanginan village in mountainous Patikul town, clad in black Muslim dresses that exposed only their eyes. They lost weight and one of the women was fondly cradling a cat, marine Captain Ryan Lacuesta said.
“They said that their captors often kept them in isolation in the mountain and the cat gave them company and pleasure,” Lacuesta said.
He quoted one of women as saying they had shared their food with the cat and joking that the pet they named Juanita was fatter than them. It wasn’t clear how they acquired the cat.
He said that the women lost a lot of weight but were otherwise fine.
