Armed group has released the remaining three captives in Papua New Guinea, says prime minister

• A group of hostages kidnapped for ransom has all been released.
• They had been kidnapped by a group of highly armed individuals.
• The hostage-takers discovered the group “by coincidence” and took them into the woods.

A group of hostages kidnapped for ransom by armed criminals in a remote corner of Papua New Guinea has all been released, according to the country’s Prime Minister, James Marape.

“We apologize to the families of those taken as hostages for ransom, it took us a while but the last three have been successfully returned through covert operations with no (ransom) paid,” Marape wrote in a Facebook post.

A group of four hostages, including international citizens and local guides, had been kidnapped by a group of highly armed individuals described as “opportunists” by national police on Monday, but one of them, a lady, was released on Wednesday.

Nanaia Mahuta, New Zealand‘s foreign minister, praised the release of the group, which included a New Zealander who is a professor at an Australian institution, in a tweet on Sunday.

According to PNG Police Commissioner David Manning, the hostage-takers discovered the group “by coincidence” and took them into the woods.

“These are opportunists that have obviously not thought this situation through before they acted, and have been asking for cash to be paid,” Manning said.

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