Colombian rebels free kidnapped Dutch journalists

Bogota, June 24 (IANS) Colombia's ELN guerrilla group has announced the release of two Dutch journalists who were kidnapped last week.

"We advise that the two foreigners captured by the ELN in Catatumbo were released in perfect condition," the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (National Liberation Army) said on Twitter on Friday, without offering any details, Efe news reported.

Derk Bolt, 52, and his cameraman, 68-year-old Eugenio Follender, were abducted last Saturday in Filogringo, a hamlet in the Catatumbo region in the province of Norte de Santander.

They had travelled there to find the biological mother of a Colombian girl adopted by a couple in the Netherlands, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, noting that the two men work for a missing-persons reality television show called "Spoorloos" (Without a Trace).

Though the Colombian government has not confirmed the release of the captives, media outlets reported that the journalists were freed.

In May 2016, ELN fighters in Filogringo kidnapped Spanish journalist Salud Hernandez, subsequently grabbing several Colombian reporters who came to the area to cover the initial abduction.

Hernandez and the Colombian journalists were released a few days later.

The ELN, currently engaged in exploratory talks with the Colombian government in Ecuador, said on Wednesday they would release the Dutch journalists to a humanitarian commission if they determined that one of their units had kidnapped them.

The head of the Colombian government's delegation to peace talks with the ELN, Juan Camilo Restrepo, denounced the kidnapping and called it a "clumsy" action.

Colombia's largest insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is now in the process of demobilising and handing over its weapons after signing a peace agreement with the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)