A New Zealand academic employed by an Australian university and two other hostages have been released in Papua New Guinea after being held in the highlands by an armed group for a week.
“It took a while, but the last three have been successfully returned,” PNG Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement.
Police said they returned to the capital Port Moresby local time on Sunday afternoon with the three hostages released. Mr. Marape was expected to greet them.
The New Zealand man – a professor at an Australian university – and two women from Papua New Guinea were taken hostage at gunpoint last Sunday in a remote and densely forested area.
Police had negotiated with the hostage-takers, who initially demanded a ransom of $1 million — a huge sum in one of the poorest countries in the Pacific — before dropping the asking price and releasing a 24-hour deadline.
Earlier last week, the kidnappers released another woman who was part of the group of academics and guides kidnapped at gunpoint.
At the time, police said the three detainees are “in fair health, although they are being held in difficult terrain,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Mr Marape said the hostages had been released after “covert operations” and the original ransom demand had not been met – but gave no further details.
“We apologize to the families of those held hostage for ransom,” Marape said.
“For criminals there is no profit in crime. We thank God that life was protected.”
The highlands of Papua New Guinea are a vast expanse of jungle-shrouded hills over which the central government and security forces have little say.
In recent years, the regions have seen an increase in tribal warfare and modern weaponry.