462 Days: Kidnapped in Somalia P1

Summary

Podcast Summary

What I Survived – Episode: "462 Days: Kidnapped in Somalia P1"

Host: Jack Laurence
Guest: Nigel Brennan
Date: April 14, 2026

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Overview of the Episode

This episode of What I Survived tells the harrowing true story of Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan, who, along with Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, was kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in Somalia in 2008 and held captive for 15 months. The episode traces Nigel's life before the abduction, his path to photojournalism, the lure and risks of covering war zones, and the events leading up to his capture. Through gripping first-person accounts and context offered by the host, listeners are immersed in the personal, professional, and geopolitical background of one of the most infamous journalist kidnappings of the 21st century.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Role and Risk of Photojournalists

(Starts at 00:57)

• Jack Laurence introduces the dangerous world of conflict photojournalism, referencing iconic images that changed history, including those from Vietnam and Sudan.
• Jack highlights that photojournalists risk their lives to show the world the realities of conflict, believing that revealing the truth may enact change.

“Photojournalists, the people behind the camera... believe that if the world could just see what they are seeing, something might change. It is by any measure one of the most quietly courageous professions on earth. And of course dangerous.”
— Jack Laurence [01:26]

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2. Nigel’s Early Life and Journey to Journalism

(05:25 – 09:30)

• Nigel describes his upbringing on a remote Australian farm in New South Wales, surrounded by siblings, endless land, and a small, tight-knit community.
• Childhood memories include driving cars and motorcycles at a young age, risk-taking adventures, and eventually moving away to boarding school, then university.
• Travels extensively after university, working in Europe and India, before returning to study photography and falling in love with photojournalism.
• Finds early work in a local Australian newspaper, quickly developing a love for everyday storytelling.

"Look, it was a pretty idyllic childhood...driving cars at the age of sort of nine or ten and had three older siblings... five and a half thousand acres to explore as well, and… be rat bags, you know, with mum sort of telling us to get out of the house..."
— Nigel Brennan [05:54]

"I loved it. Working in a small newspaper...Every day was different, fun and exciting."
— Nigel Brennan [09:21]

Memorable Moment:

• Nigel recounts a humorous run-in with police at a marijuana bust while wearing a paisley shirt, being mistaken for someone suspicious because of his knowledge of hash oil.

"I said, oh, they still make hash oil. He sort of looked at me, he goes, mate, you seem to know a lot about this drug."
— Nigel Brennan [09:51]

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3. The Lure of Conflict Zones and Meeting Amanda

(12:02 – 17:47)

• With local newspapers dwindling, Nigel contemplates freelancing and moving abroad. He reconnects with Amanda Lindhout, whom he met in Ethiopia years earlier.
• Amanda suggests a trip to Africa, specifically Somalia, to document the stories hidden amidst conflict.
• Nigel describes the difficulty of gaining access to conflict zones as a freelancer and shares anecdotes about attempts to embed with military units in Afghanistan—ultimately unsuccessful.

“Their whole reason for being is to go where the stories are...To them, it doesn't feel reckless. It's a sense of purpose, Purpose so strong that it overrides the part of the brain that's telling you to stay home.”
— Jack Laurence [13:10]

"For me, it was an adventure and a way to capture some amazing images."
— Nigel Brennan [14:41]

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4. Somalia’s Geopolitical Context & Al Shabaab’s Rise

(17:47 – 21:00)

• Host Jack Laurence provides extensive background on Somalia’s state of turmoil since the fall of its central government in 1991, highlighting the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident and the rise of Al Shabaab.
• Al Shabaab emerges as a radical and violent faction, increasingly targeting anyone perceived as foreign, including aid workers and journalists.

“Somalia had existed in a state of near constant civil war. No functioning state, no reliable institutions...It was by almost any measure one of the most dangerous places on earth. And then into that chaos came Al Shabaab.”
— Jack Laurence [18:36]

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5. Preparations and Cautious Optimism – Trusting a Fixer

(22:15 – 25:41)

• Nigel admits he deliberately misled his family about traveling to Somalia, instead telling them he was going to Kenya and Ethiopia.
• Discusses the role of the "fixer"—in this case, a man named Juice, who was crucial in arranging logistics and security, sometimes for multiple media outlets simultaneously.
• Nigel and Amanda’s reporting plans focus on Mogadishu’s displacement camps, weapon markets, humanitarian issues, and the convoluted journey of aid shipments.

"Part of that market they have a weapons sort of market. So basically where you can buy and sell any type of weapon... The fixer basically said there was no way that was going to happen. And he said it was way too dangerous."
— Nigel Brennan [23:10]

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6. Security Arrangements and a Critical Misstep

(25:41 – 29:46)

• The pair spend the first three days in Somalia with armed escorts.
• Preparations are made to visit an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp with a five-man security detail, but on the day, only two men accompany them; once out of the city, these guards exit the vehicle, leaving Nigel and Amanda exposed.
• The interpreter Abdi explains the security escorts can’t travel into militia-controlled areas for fear of execution; this crucial detail was not shared in advance.

"That leaves us with no security whatsoever. And that was not really ever explained to us... because I would never have agreed."
— Nigel Brennan [28:38]

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7. The Moment of Kidnapping: Intuition and Chaos

(29:46 – 33:16)

• Just prior to departure, Nigel has a persistent "bad feeling"—his gut signaling something was wrong, but he ignores the intuition.
• As they travel to the camp, a suspicious vehicle flashes its lights ahead. Suddenly, masked men with AK-47s ambush the group, forcibly removing them from the car.
• Nigel, Amanda, Abdi, and their drivers are taken hostage at gunpoint, crammed into a vehicle, and driven off-road into the unknown.

“My intuition was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening ... just had that tight knot in my stomach... I can remember looking up the road at one stage and seeing a car flashing its lights...and then my door opens, I'm pulled out of the car and literally pushed face first down on the sand on the side of the road.”
— Nigel Brennan [29:58; 31:40]

“Don’t talk, don’t talk.”
— (Kidnapper, recalled by Jack Laurence) [32:37]

Notable Quote:

“Amanda and I are obviously talking and we're like, have we been kidnapped. Like shit, we've been kidnapped.”
— Nigel Brennan [33:16]

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8. Facing the Horrors of Captivity and Acceptance

(Throughout, but especially [03:55; 33:29])

• Nigel reflects briefly on the coming ordeal, how early hope is replaced by the need for acceptance a year into captivity.

“Like around the 12 month mark for me, I got to a place of acceptance. It's like this is my life. I have no control.”
— Nigel Brennan [33:29]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “So I just literally, you know, best impersonation of Usain Bolt dancing on sand, sprinting... As I sort of run past the neighbor's house and even some humour... There I am teaching them yoga with three AK47s leaned up against the wall. It's just like, oh my God, this is so surreal.”
  — Nigel Brennan [04:03; 04:19]

• “We thought, well, sometimes you gotta risk it for the biscuit.”
  — Nigel Brennan [03:13]

• “Life still goes on in war zones. That's the surreal thing. Like, and the beautiful beaches and those sorts of things... even in a city that was completely war torn and decimated.”
  — Nigel Brennan [24:36]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:57 – 02:39: The role and dangers of photojournalists
• 05:25 – 09:30: Nigel’s childhood and early career
• 12:02 – 17:47: Deciding to cover conflict zones, meeting Amanda, attempts to access Afghanistan
• 17:47 – 21:00: Somalia’s conflict background and the rise of Al Shabaab
• 22:15 – 25:41: Planning the trip, security arrangements, and reporting focus
• 27:41 – 29:46: Security detail drops out; critical exposure
• 29:58 – 33:16: The kidnapping: intuition, confusion, abduction
• 33:29: Nigel’s acceptance of his fate during captivity

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Conclusion

This first part of "462 Days: Kidnapped in Somalia" vividly captures the lead-up to one of the most dramatic journalist abductions in recent history. Through Nigel Brennan’s perspective and Jack Laurence’s contextual storytelling, the episode explores not only the physical act of abduction but also the mental, moral, and emotional forces that drive people to risk everything in pursuit of truth and storytelling. The episode ends on the precipice of Nigel and Amanda’s ordeal, setting the stage for continued accounts of their survival, endurance, and the search for hope in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Transcript

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[Nigel Brennan]

See verizon.com for details.

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Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance. And now we're customizing this rush hour ad to keep you calm, which could help your driving. And science says therapy is great for a healthy mindset. So enjoy this 14 second session on us. I think you've done everything right and absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, anything that hasn't gone your way could probably be blamed on your father not being emotionally available because his father wasn't emotionally available and so on. And now that you're calm and healing, you're probably driving better too.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Out on the road, it's nice to have a partner who can help you make the most of your journey. A partner like the Love's Rewards app. With Love's Rewards along for the ride, you earn points on food, fuel, drinks and more every time you scan. Then you can spend those points at Love's just like cash, so every stop is even more rewarding. Download the app today and watch the points roll in mile after mile. Love's Rewards Save and earn at every turn. Terms apply. See website for details. You've seen the photographs. Even if you don't know their names, you've seen them. A nine year old girl running down a road in Vietnam, naked, screaming. Her body burning from a napalm strike she didn't see coming. A child collapsed in the dust of Sudan, A vulture waiting patiently nearby. Images that stopped the world. Images that in some cases ended wars, changed the way governments made decisions and the way ordinary people understood conflicts happening on the other side of the planet. These photographs, of course, didn't happen by accident. Someone was there. Someone made a choice to go to that place, to point a lens at that moment, to stay when every instinct said leave. Photojournalists, the people behind the camera, the ones who believe that if the world could just see what they are seeing, something might change. It is by any measure one of the most quietly courageous professions on earth. And of course dangerous.

[Nigel Brennan]

Funny because quite often people are like, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I work in crisis management. They're like, are you ex military? It's like, no, I'm an ex hostage. And they're like, yeah, serious.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

What an icebreake that one. Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan was inspired by these types of images, inspired by the change they could bring and wanted to be part of it. So when a friend called him in 2008 with an opportunity to head to Somalia to cover the country's ongoing conflict and unrest as well as the displacement of hundreds of thousands of its own people, he jumped at the chance.

[Nigel Brennan]

Was finally in a war torn country doing what I thought I wanted to do. And we thought, well, sometimes you gotta risk it for the biscuit.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Little did he know after just four days on the ground, it would be him that would become the story.

[Nigel Brennan]

Later that night we were allowed to actually leave the room and sit outside on a mat outside and talking to Amanda. And obviously the guys that had taken us were listening to the BB World Service in Somali and I can remember hearing Australian, Canadian journalists kidnapped.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents. An ordeal that would last 15 months. 15 months of terror.

[Nigel Brennan]

Hearing them close Amanda's door and then hearing a plate sort of skittle across the floor and her saying no, no, no. And then just her screaming for hours.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

An escape attempt.

[Nigel Brennan]

So I just literally, you know, best impersonation of Usain Bolt dancing on sand, sprinting, no idea where Amanda is by this stage. As I sort of run past the

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

neighbor's house and even some humour.

[Nigel Brennan]

Then the juxtaposition of the whole thing is there. I am teaching them yoga with three AK47s leaned up against the wall. It's just like, oh my God, this is so surreal.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Like Nigel and Amanda's story is truly one of the most incredible survival stories you will hear.

[Nigel Brennan]

Like around the 12 month mark for me, I got to a place of acceptance. It's like this is my life. I have no control.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

My name's Jack Lawrence. Welcome to what I survived.

[Mom (Verizon Ad Caller)]

Moon in the sky I'm looking at the moon in the sky this shouldn't come as a surprise but I can't sleep. War in my mind I'm trying to fight a war in my mind I don't know who's the winner tonight but it ain't me.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Chapter one. Do they still make hash oil?

[Nigel Brennan]

I was born in Kerindai, near Tamworth. In New South Wales. First, I think first four years of my life was at a little place called Spring Ridge. And then mum and dad moved halfway between Moree and Gundiwindi. So grew up on a five and a half thousand acre wheat farm. Wheat and cotton.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

That's actually my dream to live just away from civilization and experience that. What was it like sort of growing up in that, in that environment?

[Nigel Brennan]

Look, it was a pretty idyllic childhood, you know, driving cars at the age of sort of nine or ten and had three older siblings. We were, you know, sort of, I guess spent a lot of time out on the property, you know, five and a half thousand acres to explore as well, and, and be rat bags, you know, with mum sort of telling us to get out of the house and I sort of just having a playground. So riding motorbikes and I guess doing things that country kids do. But, you know, had a really nice little community. Went to a very, very small school. I think I went to like primary school. Was about 25 students.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Wow. Smaller than my daughter's class. Yeah. Were you a risk taker as a kid?

[Nigel Brennan]

I don't know. Like, when I think about that, I don't know. Like, yes, we did stupid things like jump forward four wheelers over dam banks and landing into water and towing car bonnets behind vehicles with a bit of rope, you know, through corrugated fields and stuff, or surfing behind a car on, on your shoes and those sorts of things. So I guess country kids are sort of risky, like I said, driving a car at the age of nine. Like, my mum still tells a story where we had a gravel road and then a black soil road. So you always had to drive on the black soil so that the gravel didn't sort of blow away. And mum said she can remember driving, seeing the ute coming the opposite way with just me sort of looking over the steering wheel with her going, where the hell's he going?

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

With the family living so remote, Nigel and his brothers would end up at boarding school for six years. And after school he moves to Sydney to go to university where he would study hospitality management. But eventually he gets the travel bug.

[Nigel Brennan]

So, you know, first trip was to, I think it was to Thailand. And then I guess as I sort of spread further through India and places like that. So I've been to India seven times, which I love, and then pretty much took off overseas for four years, Traveled through Europe, worked on motor yachts, you know, private motor yachts for 18 months to the ski season in France. So I had that real love of, I guess, you know, other cultures. And came back, I think it was early 2000 with my then girlfriend and she's like, what are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know. She's like, why don't you go to university?

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So now at the age of 28, classified as a mature age student, Nigel does a Bachelor of Arts. He studies photography and majors in photojournalism. At what point did you mix your interest in journalism and photography together?

[Nigel Brennan]

I finished uni 2003, then spent a year building my own house up in Bundaberg. 2005, moved back to the UK with my then wife I think. When did I come back? I think it was around 2006. Marriage fell apart, came back and was actually in the process of starting to help mum and dad build their retirement home. So they'd sold the farm in 2005 and there was a job going at the local newspaper in Bundaberg at the News Mail. So applied for it, put in my portfolio and got a gig and basically hit the ground running. It was fabulous. I loved it. Working in a small newspaper.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Nigel instantly loves what he's doing. It may just be a small town newspaper but it was varied. Every day was different, fun and exciting.

[Nigel Brennan]

I can remember doing one gig at that stage. I had like big sideburns and we were going to this drug bust out sort of west of Bundaberg and I rocked up in a paisley shirt, which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. But I said to the council, because they're most massive marijuana crop and the guy basically had planted it in the national park beside his property. So he got in more trouble for planting it in a national park than planning on his own property. But I was sort of walking through it and photographing it and I said to one of the head cops, I said, oh, they still make hash oil. He sort of looked at me, he goes, mate, you seem to know a lot about this drug. He spent years and then he basically turned to all the other journalists. So Channel nine and everyone was there and he said, so every single journalist will be getting checked on the way.

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[Nigel Brennan]

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[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

new lines and a limited welcome and autopay.

[Nigel Brennan]

See verizon.com for details.

[Liberty Mutual Ad Voice]

Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance. And now we're customizing this rush hour ad to keep you calm, which could help your driving. And science says therapy is great for a healthy mindset. So enjoy this 14 second session on us. I think you've done everything right and absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, anything that hasn't gone your way could probably be blamed on your father not being emotionally available because his father wasn't emotionally available and so on. And now that you're calm and healing, you're probably driving better too.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Nigel Brennan]

It's the Smuckers Uncrustables Radio hour with

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

round, soft pillowy bread filled with delicious PB&J.

[Nigel Brennan]

Here's your host Uncrustables caller on line three.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

What's eating you? No one crust. Is that you?

[Nigel Brennan]

Uncrustables are the best part of the sandwich. Sorry, crust.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Chapter two Going to a conflict zone. Eventually, Nigel decides he's cut his teeth in local news and it's time to set his sights on something bigger. But unfortunately at the time, newspapers are on the decline, there's not much work around, so he heads back overseas.

[Nigel Brennan]

The picture editor at the Courier Mail just said, look, you've got a great portfolio, but unfortunately we're not hiring anyone at the moment. We're actually looking for stringers and freelancers and those sorts of things. So if you want to do that. And I sort of thought about that and was just thought, well, maybe I head back overseas. And I moved to Scotland with a girlfriend, so she was the head chef on a, on a private shooting estate. After about six months of being in Scotland, I sort of got started to get itchy feet and had obviously met Amanda a few years prior in Ethiopia and had had a relationship with Amanda, which was pretty much why my marriage fell apart and we reconnected and she was just, you know, asking me what I was doing. And I said, I'm feeling a bit frustrated and want to sort of really jump into something that I've always been talking about and that was going into a conflict zone.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

For most people, the thought of traveling to a war zone isn't exactly high on the list of things to experience. But journalists and particularly photojournalists are built differently. Their whole reason for being is to go where the Stories are to be on the ground, be present at the moments that matter, however dangerous, however remote, however far outside the boundaries of what most of us would consider safe. To them, it doesn't feel reckless. It's a sense of purpose, Purpose so strong that it overrides the part of the brain that's telling you to stay home. A belief that the story is worth telling, that the world is better informed than ignorant, and that the photograph, the report filed from rubble of somewhere most people couldn't find on a map matters. That was Nigel's thoughts. He wanted to go where others didn't. He wanted to capture moments that otherwise may be simply lost to the passage of time. And it wasn't his first rodeo in places others warned not to go.

[Nigel Brennan]

Well, I think it was also about getting sort of off the beaten track a little bit, too. Like, you know, my first trip to Ethiopia, where I met Amanda, we went out to the Danakal depression, which is the lowest point on earth, so I think it's 130 meters below sea level or something like that. It is one of the hottest places on earth too, so temperatures pretty much sit around 45 to 50 degrees all day. And went to photograph the Afar tribes that mine salt and they basically go out there for 10 hours a day in full, you know, couldn't believe it. Like, pretty much woolen jumpers to obviously cover themselves from head to toe so they don't burn and do that seven days of the week and pack it onto camels and then send it to markets. And it was an amazing thing. Like, everyone's like, you're crazy going out there. Like, the Afar, it can be dangerous. And. And for me, it was an adventure and a way to capture some amazing images.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So before the call came from Amanda with the prospect of Somalia, Nigel said he had already tried to make arrangements to head off to Afghanistan. But the red tape and the fact that he was a freelancer made it difficult.

[Nigel Brennan]

So my girlfriend, who was in Scotland, had some links through her boss with the British military who were looking at options for me being able to get into Afghanistan. Obviously, the problem with being a freelancer and not being linked with a media organization was going to make it harder to try and embed in those sorts of things with. With the U.S. you know, trying to embed with the Australian army is almost impossible. One of my good mates who I went through uni with, Adam Ferguson, who's a, you know, legendary photojournalist and Time magazine covers and all that sort of stuff, and he just said working with the Us, you know, there was no vetoing of images. They just, they didn't even want to look. Whereas with Australia, it's just like we want to basically vet what you're going to print. So he just said, I. He gave up going, trying to get in with the, with the Australian forces.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So with Afghanistan looking like it was off the table and Nigel feeling a bit frustrated in his current situation, the call from Amanda came at the perfect time.

[Nigel Brennan]

And that's when Amanda called and she said, what are you doing? I said, nothing, I'm sort of feeling a bit frustrated in Scotland. And she said, do you fancy going back into Africa? And I said, where are you thinking? And she said, well, I was thinking we could do a trip to Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, if you're interested. And I'd obviously been to Ethiopia, had not been to Kenya at that stage, but New Kenya was relatively safe. But Somalia was that country. Yeah. Having grown up and seen Black Hawk down, it was just like, that place is pretty hectic. And obviously started to do, you know, a bit of research and reading about it and what had obviously gone on after 89 with Saeed Bairi, the dictator, being overthrown and then warlords sort of taking over and as I said, like America sort of getting their asses handed to them with Black Hawk down and then running away from Somalia because it was all too difficult. And I guess Then in 2008 you had a transitional federal government, so, you know, a proxy puppet sort of government probably in place, supported by African Union forces And, you know, 95% of the rest of the country sort of being controlled by Al Shabaab, the terrorist organization.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So you may have heard the name Mogadishu, potentially from a film called Black Hawk down. Ridley Scott's 2001 movie starring Australian Eric Banner, tells the story of what happened there on the 3rd and 4th of October in 1993. But like most films based on real events, knowing the movie and knowing the history are two different things. So about 100 elite US soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the heart of Mogadishu on a mission to arrest two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night, fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. Somali insurgents shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters using rocket propelled grenades. With both crashing deep in hostile territory. The 15 hour battle that followed left 18Americans dead and 73 injured. Shocking images of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu were seared into the memories of people watching at home. The United States quickly withdrew shortly after, and Somalia, already broken, was left to its own chaos. That chaos created the perfect conditions for what would come next. Since the collapse of its central government in 1991, Somalia had existed in a state of near constant civil war. No functioning state, no reliable institutions, a patchwork of competing clans, warlords and militias filling the vacuum where a government should have been. It was by almost any measure one of the most dangerous places on earth. And then into that chaos came Al Shabaab.

[Nigel Brennan]

The fighting was for the control of Danilo, a satellite suburb of Mogadishu. The African Union and its Somali government allies launched Thursday's attack to stop Al Shabaab from using it as a base to threaten.

[Mom (Verizon Ad Caller)]

Al Shabaab, or the youth movement, has extended its control across the country. It's still fighting for the capital, Mogadishu, and is yet to enter the seat

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

of the the name translates simply from Arabic as the Youth. Al Shabaab originated as a militia within the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union, an umbrella group that had provided a form of de facto governance across much of Somalia until the country was invaded by Ethiopia in December of 2006. When that invasion came and the Islamic Courts Union collapsed, Al Shabaab didn't collapse with it. It transformed from a small, relatively unimportant part of a more moderate Islamic movement into the most powerful and radical armed faction in the country.

[Mom (Verizon Ad Caller)]

Next week, an intelligence report is due to be presented to the US Congress. It reportedly states Al Shabaab has up to 1,000 foreign fighters in its ranks.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

From 2007 to 2008, Al Shabaab established itself as an independent actor, gaining prominence as a vehicle of armed resistance against the Ethiopian military occupation. During 2008, the group began rapidly expanding and governing territory. For the first time, recruits flooded in. New Islamist nationalist fighters swelled Al Shabaab's ranks from around 400 into the thousands between 2006 and 2008. In 08, the United States officially designated Al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization. Their targets were broad and deliberately indiscriminate government officials, African Union peacekeepers, aid workers and journalists. Anyone essentially who represented a threat to their control or an outside world they wanted kept out. This was the country. Nigel Brennan pointed his camera towards a country on fire, run in large parts by a militia that had made it very clear that foreigners were not welcome and that the consequences of being caught could be severe. Chapter 3 Intuition is a very Powerful thing How did your family feel about all of this?

[Nigel Brennan]

At the time, Jack, very good question. So I didn't actually tell them. I told them that I was traveling to Kenya to go and photograph. Didn't actually left. Left the part out about Somalia. So I said was going to. To Kenya and planning a trip to Ethiopia. And. And the Somalian trip was, you know, it was just seven days. That was it. It was basically smash and grab in and out. Try and get some photos, try and get some stories and then pot, try and sell that to someone.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So Nigel and Amanda plan their trip, which, as we've mentioned previously in the story of journalists overseas like Sean Langan, involve a fixer. Theirs was called a juice. A guy that had come recommended to them and who was in fact going to be working on the ground at the same time with a team from National Geographic. So they had their fixer, their flights booked and a plan for what exactly they wanted to try and cover.

[Nigel Brennan]

There was definitely some stories like obviously one of the things that we were interested in was trying to go and photograph what was happening at Bacara Markets, which is the largest market in Africa. And part of that market they have a weapons sort of market. So basically where you can buy and sell any type of weapon juice. The fixer basically said there was no way that was going to happen. And he said it was way too dangerous trying to get out, obviously, and cover some of the, I guess, fighting between Al Shabaab and. And the interim government forces, that sort of stuff. Again, he just said there's not really a front line. It is sort of, I guess, Al Shabaab sort of coming in sort of waves of raids and those sorts of things. So it wasn't like there was a front line as such. And then one of the big things for us was obviously the displacement of people. So, you know, over half a million people that had been displaced from Mogadishu that were living in IDP camps. There was also another story that we're really interested, which had a Canadian slant, which was their. There was an aid ship from Canada that was coming to supply aid. And one of the things that we really wanted to try and do was to follow, obviously aid from overseas. It then goes to a third party who basically has to pay for all of that food to ensure that it gets to the right place. And if it doesn't, then they lose their money. And then we'd heard of stories of these guys obviously with aid, then basically Al Shabab raiding them and basically taking the trucks and. And distributing the food wherever they wanted. So that was sort of the thing that we were looking at and then obviously getting into Mogadishu, just seeing what was sort of happening as well, because life still goes on in war zone. That's the surreal thing. Like, and the beautiful beaches and those sorts of things where people were still sort of, you know, going to the beach and swimming and even in a. In a city that was completely war torn and decimated.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Nigel and Amanda arrive in Somalia. They would spend the first three days traveling around, visiting some feeding stations and out on patrol with the African Union forces. They visit a sort of makeshift hospital, they talk with people trying to find out what was happening on the ground in Mogadishu, doing what journalists do. Everything was essentially going as planned. That was until day four.

[Nigel Brennan]

So the night before, we'd sat down with the Juice and obviously organised everything that we were doing. We wanted to go to the smaller of the five IDP camps that had about 60,000 people living there. We'd obviously heard through a Juice that, you know, living conditions were pretty bare, so there's no running water, no sewerage system, those sorts of things. Very limited water, food. Stories of Al Shabaab sort of raiding these camps at night and kidnapping women or raping women. We sat down the night before with the Juice, organised extra security. So again, like, you know, for the first three days, we'd constantly had two guys with AK47s pretty much shepherding us to ensure that we were safe while we were moving around Mogadishu, which is something normally, you know, we would say to journalists when we train them, you don't generally have weapons in vehicles because it sort of reduces your neutrality. But certainly there are countries in the world as a journalist where you need some sort of weaponry to ensure your safety. But we'd organized with the Juice to have an extra three guys, so was expecting that day to have five. Five guys basically traveling with us with, with AK47s to ensure that we were safe when we were in the. The ITB camp.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

These men with AK47s have been arranged by Nigel and Amanda's fixer. When you're in a country like Somalia where you don't speak the language, you don't necessarily understand its culture, the lay of the land, a journalist has to put incredible amounts of trust in their fixer. It's their eyes and ears, their safety. And so the following day they wake up, jump in the car and head off for another day of chasing stories.

[Nigel Brennan]

So when we left the hotel, we had our two security detail in the vehicle and it had been explained to us that we would pick up the extra security detail 5km outside of Mogadishu. So once we sort of got past the city limits, we'd pick up an extra security detail and we sort of stopped on the outskirts of, I guess, the city. The two guys in the back with the AK47s jumped out and we had an interpreter, Abdi, who spoke really good English and he was also working as Amanda's cameraman. And I just said to Abdi, what's, what's going on? And he said, oh, these guys are basically seen as transitional government forces and if they're found in a militia run area, they'll basically be taken from the car and executed. So they have to stay here.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

So that leaves you with no security whatsoever.

[Nigel Brennan]

That leaves us with no security whatsoever. So. And that was not really ever explained to us that that's. That that was what was going to happen because I would never have agreed. You know, the night before if a juice had said, well, you're going to have to drive 3-5 km without any security, then I would have said, well, that same, you know, that's, that's just stupidity.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Yeah, but at this point you're in a situation where it's kind of like, well, we're on our way now.

[Nigel Brennan]

Well, I guess at that point too it was just like, well, what do we do? Do we go back to the hotel and basically the day's done. It's. It's nine o' clock in the morning. We can't really organize anything else. A juice was out with the National Geographic team. So having access to him was going to be hard when he was on the road, those sorts of things. So I guess Amanda and I sort of discussed it very quickly and just said, well, like, this is what we're sort of, this is the plan for today. So let's, let's just punch through and we'll drive the 3Ks or whatever it is to pick up our extra security detail. And you know, that that was the decision we made to take that risk,

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

a risk they couldn't know at the time was about to cost them 15 months of their lives. Although Nigel does say prior to leaving the hotel, his intuition was trying to warn him of something.

[Nigel Brennan]

It was weird. Like when we were in the hotel in the morning before we left, it was almost like my intuition was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening and I actually thought I was going to have gastro or something because I kept going backwards to the toilet. It was just like, oh man, there's something wrong with my tummy. It just doesn't feel good. And every time I went to the toilet, nothing happened. And I'd come back and just had that tight knot in my stomach and intuitions, you know, incredibly powerful thing. And I just didn't. Didn't pick up on the cues. I can remember being in. I was in the back seat behind the front passenger. So it was actually like Abdi and Amanda were sort of talking and, you know, being quite jovial and joking and that sort of stuff. And I was interacting with them, sort of deleting photos off my digital camera. And I can remember looking up the road at one stage and seeing a car flashing its lights. And it was sort of on the crest of the hill, maybe a K, K and a half further down the road. I said to Abdi, what's that? And he said, oh, that's probably our security detail. And just was like, okay, that's. That seems normal. And went back to my camera again, slowly deleting the images from the day before. I'd been out with African Union forces and, you know, the car sort of came to a. You know, we started to slow down. It's. It's come to a stop. And I've sort of looked up and looked over my right shoulder and seen a guy literally running towards the car, masked face, AK47 to his shoulder, and then quickly scanned around the vehicle and watched more sort of guys running towards us. And then my door opens, I'm pulled out of the car and literally pushed face first down on the. On the sand on the side of the road. Then Amanda and Abdi and the two drivers were brought around to my side of the vehicle. All of them were pushed down and pretty much then picked up and, you know, told to get up and then get into the back seat of the Toyota Land Cruiser with one of the assailants now sitting in with us. So there's six of us pretty much in the back seats. Two guys with okays jump in the back and then a new driver jumps in and another guy pointing a pistol back at us.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Shut up. Don't talk, don't talk.

[Nigel Brennan]

And then the car literally just takes off. So the two vehicles, the vehicle that I'd seen flashing its lights sort of took the lead and we went straight off the main road and literally across country.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Nigel and Amanda don't know where they're going, who's taken them, or what's going to happen next.

[Nigel Brennan]

Like, Amanda and I are obviously talking and we're like, have. Have we been kidnapped. Like shit, we've been kidnapped.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

They also don't know that this is only the beginning of a 15 month ordeal.

[Nigel Brennan]

Like around the 12 month mark for me, I got to a place of acceptance. It's like this is my life. I have no control.

[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

Next time on what I survived.

[Nigel Brennan]

Moon in the sky.

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[Nigel Brennan]

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[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

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[Nigel Brennan]

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[Narrator/Host (Jack Lawrence)]

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