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In 2009, a Canadian journalist who was rescued from Somali kidnappers was kidnapped when she traveled to Somalia with her boyfriend to report the real situation in Somalia.
The kidnappers treated the female reporter as a "sex slave" and violated her every day in front of her boyfriend, and later the female reporter even gave birth to a child to the kidnapper, and the female reporter suffered a mental breakdown after being tortured in every way, and was not "bought" back by the family with ransom until 460 days later, so how is the female reporter doing now?
Come to Somalia for your dreams
The Canadian journalist named Amanda, in her 20s, loves her job as a journalist, which is related to a book she encountered in her childhood.
Due to the divorce of her parents since childhood, her family was poor, and she could only go out with her brother every day to pick up garbage and sell it for money. While picking up trash by chance, she found a magazine called National Geographic.
As soon as she saw this magazine, she was attracted by the mysterious and beautiful pictures on it, showing beautiful landscapes and peculiar natural geographical environments from all over the world, which made Amanda, who had never been far away, very curious. She imagines that she is really in the places shown in the pictures through the scenery shown in the pictures.
At that moment, she felt as if she was standing in the forest breathing fresh air, listening to the running water and the sound of birdsong, which was so good for her, she became a big fan of this magazine, and every time she exchanged money, she would buy this magazine. Gradually, she began to want to see the place where the book was filmed, but there was not so much money at home, what should she do?
At this time, she thought that her studies were not good, it was better to drop out of school to work and make money, just do it, she immediately explained the withdrawal to the school, found a bar at random, and began to work life. But this job alone is simply not enough, excluding daily expenses, she will need at least ten years to save enough money to travel, she can't wait that long.
So she found a job in a convenience store, got up early and greedy, just to make enough money, during this period she also met her boyfriend, Nigel, a photographer, after a period of understanding, the other party felt that she was a very thoughtful girl, so he launched a passionate pursuit of her. It just so happened that Amanda also liked Nigel, and the two became boyfriend and girlfriend.
The two often conduct interviews and reports together, Amanda is responsible for collecting information, Nigel is in charge of filming, and the two of them have become so-called "freelance journalists", which have the advantage of being able to go around the world to collect material to report at will, and the newspaper society gives high writing fees. The bad thing is that it's too dangerous, and they often have to go to deserted or war-torn places to gather news material.
But that didn't stop Amanda's determination to go to these dangerous places, and she ignored the bar owner's advice and insisted on going to Afghanistan, bringing her boyfriend with her. In 2007, she took many precious images in war-torn Afghanistan and wrote about the real scenes she saw in Afghanistan, which made her popular in China.
The newspaper also gave her a lot of writing fees, it turned out that she could really make so much money, and she could also look at human geography around the world, and Amanda began to focus her interviews on more dangerous places, and she went to Iraq to report.
Unexpectedly, interviewing in these countries did not put herself in danger, she began to have a fluke mentality, she felt that the so-called war-torn countries were just that, she just needed to be more cautious, she couldn't guess what she would face next.
Dim 460 days
After reporting on the first two countries, she saw Somalia in another story, once known as the capital of terror, a country from Africa. It has been anarchic since 1991, the country is very unstable, kidnappers can be seen everywhere, and it is much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan and other places.
It was this unstable situation that attracted Amanda, she decided to go to Somalia to get the latest and most truthful reports, boyfriend Nigel heard that Amanda was going to Somalia, that place basically has no return, this is completely to "send to death!" Nigel was a little reluctant, and he again told Amanda about the dangers of Somalia.
But Amanda didn't care for a long time, she just wanted to find the most explosive news to make herself more famous, and she was a little angry when she saw Nigel's appearance, and told Nigel about the original intention of the two to be together and played the emotional card for him. Nigel is also true love for Amanda, and after hearing Amanda's words, he puts aside those concerns and travels to Somalia with her.
While in Somalia, the two bumped into a man named Robert, a good friend of Amanda's and a journalist. Amanda is happy to see him, but Robert is shocked, and he asks Amanda why she didn't bring a bodyguard? Amanda laughed at him for being too timid and cautious.
Robert was a little worried about the woman in front of him, he knew that he could not persuade Amanda at this time, so he turned to talk to her boyfriend Nigel, "Mogadishu is really dangerous, two people alone will be sent to death." But Nigel apparently couldn't stop his girlfriend's decision. Robert had to shake his head, he seemed to have seen the unfortunate end of the two.
After saying goodbye to Robert, the two went to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, which is the most chaotic place in the whole of Somalia and the most prone to breaking news. Unable to understand the local dialect, Amanda hired two local guides to show her direction.
Unexpectedly, they had just stepped into the outer areas of Mogadishu and were strafed with guns. Fortunately, the other party seemed to just want to scare himself, and a shot did not hit the body, and the two guides were frightened not lightly, and directly jumped out of the car and fled, leaving Amanda and Nigel sitting in fear in the car.
At this time, a row of men in black walked down from several black cars, carrying deadly guns in their hands, threatening the two to get out of the car, Amanda and her boyfriend did not dare to act rashly, so they had to do as the other party said. The two were then taken to the camp of the group of kidnappers, who demanded that the two give $3 million as ransom, otherwise they would tear up the ticket.
But the two did not have so much cash in hand, the kidnappers directly pointed guns at the two, used Amanda's camera to shoot a video of asking for help from their families, and directly locked them in a small black room after filming, without giving them anything to eat. And every once in a while, different people would come in and beat them, and after the beating, they would shoot a video, asking them to hurry up and urge their families to pay a ransom.
But nearly 4 days passed on the family's side and there was still no news, and the kidnappers began to torture the two inhumanely. The kidnappers saw that Amanda was looking good, so they raped her on the spot, even in front of Nigel. Nigel tried to stop the kidnappers, but was shot in the thigh, and he covered his thigh in pain.
There was another scream from his girlfriend's side, and he reached out to his girlfriend, and the kidnapper saw that he still wanted to grab Amanda with his hand. Immediately kicked on the muzzle, severe pain made Nigel faint, and when he woke up, the kidnappers were still violating his girlfriend, and he couldn't exert a little strength, so he suffered both psychological and physical torture.
The same was true of Amanda, who thought of countless ways to save herself, even pretending to be an Islamic believer, fantasizing that the Quran would shock them, but these methods were completely useless in front of the mob. Until one time Amanda managed to escape to the mosque, just as the kidnappers caught up, an old grandmother grabbed her and tried to pull her away.
But not strong enough, Amanda was still caught by the kidnappers, and her repeated attempts to escape made them feel that Amanda was dishonest and violated her more, which later led to Amanda's pregnancy, and she was forced to give birth to a child to the kidnappers.
See the light of day again
At this moment, Amanda's hometown family is anxiously asking the government to rescue Amanda and others, and the Canadian government is also quickly starting to rescue, but the Somali thugs are unreasonable, and the negotiations between the two countries lasted for a year, until the Canadian government voluntarily gave up this lengthy rescue.
Amanda and Nigel's parents were so distraught that they were in debt until the 460th day later, when their parents offered $1.2 million, and the kidnappers abandoned them on the street when they saw that they were useless. Amanda saved her life.
Amanda, who was rescued, wanted to commit suicide several times, but thought of her parents and boyfriend who was suffering with her, so she gave up the idea, she felt that the best way to come out by changing her mind and forget the pain was to face the pain, and Amanda wanted to get out of the way and return to Somalia again.
In 2018, a thief from Somalia was caught by Canadian police, who was one of the members who kidnapped Amanda that year, and just when everyone thought that he would be sentenced to death, Amanda stood up. She claims that she has let go and that she will no longer hold these people accountable.
Now she understands a truth, the way to reach a reconciliation with herself is to cross herself, if she keeps tangling with pain, it will never end.
She remembered the grandmother who saved her, so she chose to put aside her resentment and use her own money to create a foundation to give Somali women who love to learn the opportunity to learn, and she built a primary school to educate the girls.
In the ten years since her rescue, she realized that education can change not only a person's psyche, but also their living conditions, so she actively joined the ranks and gave love to those in Somalia. But Amanda alone is not enough, and there are so many refugees in places where there is no peace, and there is also the same experience as Amanda.
If everyone can give a little love so that the poor can also fill their stomachs, it will definitely greatly reduce the chance of civil strife in the country and kidnappers.