462 Days: Kidnapped in Somalia P4

Summary

What I Survived — Episode: 462 Days: Kidnapped in Somalia, Part 4

Host: Jack Laurence
Main Guest/Storyteller: Nigel Brennan
Date: April 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping installment of "What I Survived," host Jack Laurence returns to the true story of Nigel Brennan and Amanda Lindhout, journalists kidnapped in Somalia and held for 462 days. Part 4 focuses on the most daring part of their ordeal: their desperate escape attempt from captivity, the planning and execution of the breakout, and the harrowing aftermath when their bid for freedom leads to chaos and near-death. Through their eyes, listeners experience not only the anxiety and ingenuity required for survival but the razor-thin line between hope and despair.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Resonance of Escape Stories

[02:16]

• Jack Laurence opens by discussing cultural touchstones like "The Great Escape," "Shawshank Redemption," and "Alcatraz," noting how these stories capture the universal longing to break free from captivity.
• He stresses that, unlike famous movies, Nigel and Amanda had no script, no safety nets — “the guns were not loaded with blanks.”

2. Discovery of a Possible Escape

[05:25]

• Nigel describes the moment he finds a weak point: “I raced back to the room and knocked up the wall and said to Amanda, I said, I’m pretty sure I found a way for us to get out of the house.” (Nigel Brennan, 05:25)
• Amanda acts as lookout through pinholes in her metal door, using her impaired vision to their advantage.
• “That was my tool. Shawshank Redemption style.” (Nigel Brennan, 06:49) — referring to using a nail file to work through mortar and bars.

3. The Mechanics and Perils of Escape

[06:51] – [08:59]

• Nigel details painstakingly removing bars and bricks, using found objects as wedges to hold bricks in place — a makeshift yet ingenious strategy.
• He notes the risk: “The problem is, if I get caught, they're going to absolutely beat the shit out of me.”
• After days of effort, Nigel and Amanda prepare to “go under the cover of darkness,” drawing direction by watching planes land to estimate their proximity to Mogadishu Airport.

4. First Attempt: Terror and Second Thoughts

[08:59] – [13:29]

• The plan unfolds: Amanda signals with a knock, they attempt escape, but Amanda gets stuck at the window — “I can’t fit.” (Nigel Brennan, 10:54)
• Panic and improvisation ensue as Nigel must cover their tracks, rebuilding the wall bit by bit over two hours, pretending to be ill to buy time from the guard, Abdullah.
• The emotional toll is palpable: “I was like, physically and mentally just spent.” (Nigel Brennan, 13:11)

5. Reassessment and Second Escape Attempt

[13:49] – [14:52]

• After enlarging the escape hole, they alter plans: Amanda urges for immediate action—“We could be moved at any stage. So I was like, right, today, midday, same thing.” (Nigel Brennan, 14:40)
• The plan is risky: daylight, the potential for being spotted, and the uncertainty of which route would offer the best chance of survival.

6. The Break for Freedom

[14:55] – [18:58]

• Escape in motion: both get through the window, Nigel nearly falls (“had to go headfirst… I nearly went head first down”).
• Immediately spotted by a neighbor’s child who sounds the alarm.
• They sprint through sandy alleyways barefoot, disoriented; Amanda and Nigel are briefly separated in the chaos.
• Key Moment: “safety in numbers, run for the market.” (Nigel Brennan, 16:28)
• A neighbor, surprisingly an English speaker, helps direct them: “Do you need help?... Please help us, we need to get to the mosque.” (Nigel Brennan, 17:21)
• Their captors, Jamal and Abdullah, pursue them with AK-47s, and a shot is fired just as they reach the mosque.

7. Seeking Sanctuary in the Mosque

[21:10] – [28:48]

• The podcaster reflects on the gamble: a mosque might be sanctuary or another trap, representing a “calculation, not a certainty.” (Host, 22:27)
• Nigel, using halting Somali, proclaims, “One Muslim, I am Muslim... [recites shahada].” (Nigel Brennan, 23:33)–a testament to survival through cultural knowledge.
• Chaos increases as older Somali men intervene, separating the captors from their prey.
• A mysterious man with an AK-47 offers Nigel his gun as a token of brotherhood:
  • “This is the gun of the Muslim man. And because you’re my brother… I want you to take my AK-47.” (Mysterious man, recounted by Nigel, 27:21)
  • Nigel declines, declaring, “It’s haram for me as a Muslim man to hurt another Muslim.” (Nigel Brennan, 28:48)

8. Violent Recapture and Aftermath

[30:14] – [36:36]

• Masked gunmen swarm the mosque. The captors regain the upper hand.
• Nigel is pistol-whipped and Amanda’s hijab is violently removed; she is dragged outside (“then five, 10 seconds later, I just hear a single AK47 gunshot. That’s just like. She has just been executed.” Nigel Brennan, 32:37)
• Believing Amanda has been killed, Nigel is overcome by the sense that he’s moments from death, his thoughts turning to his family.
• Reunited in the back of their captors’ car, Amanda, bruised but alive, grins:
  • “Fuck, that was intense.” (Amanda, recounted by Nigel, 35:14)
  • “For 25 minutes or whatever it was, we basically had taken back control. And it felt so powerful to basically be in control for such a short period of time.” (Nigel Brennan, 36:06)
• The aftermath includes even harsher captivity: “Being woken up in the middle of the night with a torch and five AK-47s, like, literally in my face…” (Nigel Brennan, 36:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ingenuity born of desperation:
  • “That was my tool. Shawshank Redemption style.” (Nigel Brennan, 06:49)
• On fear and decision:
  • “I’m so terrified. Today is the day I could potentially die.” (Nigel Brennan, 09:50)
• Dark humor under pressure:
  • “Fuck, that was intense.” (Amanda to Nigel, recounted by Nigel, 35:14)
• On reclaiming agency:
  • “For 25 minutes… we basically had taken back control. And it felt so powerful to basically be in control for such a short period of time.” (Nigel Brennan, 36:06)
• Emotional peak:
  • “…I just hear a single AK47 gunshot. That’s just like. She has just been executed.” (Nigel Brennan, 32:37)

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Timestamps for Crucial Segments

• Introduction & resonance of escape stories: 02:16 – 04:48
• Escape planning, discovery, and first failed attempt: 05:25 – 13:29
• Revised escape, breakout, and initial chase: 14:55 – 18:58
• Storming the mosque & confrontation: 21:10 – 28:48
• Violent recapture & psychological aftermath: 30:14 – 36:36

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Final Notes & Tone

The tone throughout is tense, raw, and honest—Nigel’s narration is direct, laced with black humor, PTSD, terror, and the small victories of human ingenuity. Amanda’s brief quips show resilience and a will to survive. The host maintains a respectful, empathetic distance, guiding listeners through the emotional landscape of the episode and highlighting the stakes and impossibility of their situation.

For listeners seeking a visceral, moment-by-moment account of survival under impossible odds, this episode is a masterclass in narrative nonfiction—and a humbling portrait of what it truly means to be unbreakable.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

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[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

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[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

based on RootMetric's best overall mobile network performance US second half 2025 four new lines and unlimited welcome and autopay. See verizon.com for details.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

There are certain stories that have burned themselves into the cultural imagination. Stories of escape of the impossible made possible through patience, ingenuity and sheer refusal to accept the walls around you. Most of us know them through films, the Great Escape. Based, of course, on a true story as it happens, where allied prisoners of war in a Nazi camp spent years digging tunnels beneath their captors feet, moving the earth one spoonful at a time. Shawshank Redemption. Fictional, but feels so real that generations of people have watched Andy dufresne crawl through 500 yards of filth and felt something close to joy as he breaks out into the night sky and feels the rain on his face for the first time in years. And of course, Alcatraz, the island prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The one they said was inescapable. On the night of June 11, 1962, three inmates, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, spent six months preparing a breakout. They tucked papier mache heads into their beds and broke out through ventilation ducts and an unguarded corridor and departed the island on an improvised raft. Of course, no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced about their fate. To this day, no one knows whether they made it. However, we root for these people every single time, whether we know their story is real or fictional. Something deep in us responds to the image of a person refusing captivity, of a mind that will not stop working, of a body that runs when every rational calculation says stay. We watch these films from our sofas, hearts hammering, leaning forward, willing the person on screaming at them to make it through the next door, over the next fence, across the next yard before the lights come on. But here is the thing about Nigel Brennan and Amanda Lindhout with their story. There was no director, no script, no stunt coordinator standing just off camera, no second take if something went wrong. The guards outside their door were certainly not actors, and the guns were not loaded with blanks. The country beyond those walls was no film set. It was Somalia in the grip of civil war, controlled in large part by one of the most dangerous militant groups on earth. Everything that was about to happen, the hole in the wall, the running, the escape was real. And it was about to begin.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Moon in the sky I'm looking at

[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

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, Ton, but it ain't me.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Chapter eight. Fuck. I'm so terrified.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

So with this sort of, I guess, amazing news, I raced back to the room and knocked up the wall and said to Amanda, I said, I'm pretty sure I found a way for us to get out of the house. And she's like, what is it? I said, the bathroom. There's a weakness. The problem is, if I get caught, they're going to absolutely beat the shit out of me. So I said, what I need you to do is. So the door of her room basically looks straight down the hallway to the front of the house, which is where the captors would sit pretty much most of the day. And if we wanted to go to the toilet, we would have to bang on our door. And then the captors would basically come down the hallway, open the door and say, what? And we'd be like, no, Scotia toilet. And they're like, go. So I said, pretty much, I need you to be my eyes and ears. And she said, look, there's this really tiny pinholes in the metal door that I can look through. And because she wears contact lenses, and by then her contacts were rude, and she said, my vision's not really good, but when it's a pinhole, I can actually see quite well. So she said, pretty much, I'll sit there at the door looking through that pinhole, and if anyone comes near the front door, I'll just bang on the door, which will give you time to basically race back from the toilet into your room and close the door. So we had a little pair of nail clippers with the little nail file at the back that you clean under your nails. That was my tool. Shawshank Redemption style.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Here goes Andy Dufresne.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Oh, yeah. So I'd gone in there and literally taken out the three bars and then started to chip away at this mortar. So it took me about two and a half days to finally get this row of bricks free. And the Somalians use those little wooden toothbrushes that they clean their teeth with, like they do in Africa. Like, they don't actually use a toothbrush. It's like a stick and that. They had a number of these used sticks on the window ledge. So I basically got those and split them into wedges. So I took out the bricks and put them down on the ledge. So I got each brick out, and then as I put them in, I put little wedges of timber and to hold them in place. So it was like this jigsaw.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Incredible how ingenious you become. You know, I mean, I talk to prisoners on a daily basis who do, you know, do all sorts of weird and wonderful things in their cells over the years when they've just got nothing but time to think about things.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Oh, absolutely. Well, it's the devious side of your brain that just sort of Kicks in. So after two and a half days, I said to Amanda, right, we're good to go.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

So nigel had his weak point. He had two days of patient, careful work behind him. But now they needed something else, Something no map and no compass, no phone could give them because they didn't have any of that. They needed a direction. They knew they were somewhere in Somalia. That was the extent of what they knew about the location. They knew the name of the town, but they didn't know how far they were from mogadishu. They didn't know which way the roads ran or where they led. In a country with no functioning infrastructure to speak of, no landmarks, of course, that they would recognize, and a militant group controlling the territory around them, Running in the wrong direction was not just useless, it was potentially fatal. They could run straight into the arms of another al shabaab cell. They could run deeper into open countryside with no cover and no hope of help. They could run for hours and end up further from safety than they even started. So they needed a bearing, and nigel had found one in the sky.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

When I've been allowed to sit outside in the compound and wash clothes, Obviously have been watching planes coming in, you, know, to land. So we're obviously somewhere close to mogadishu. Like, we're not too far away. So I'd been watching these commercial airliners sort of come in and then disappear behind the compound mall and said, look, we might be 10, 20 kilometers from the airport. I don't know, like, it's a guess, But I'm pretty sure it's in that direction. And I said, maybe if we go under the COVID of darkness. So after last prayer, you knock to go to the toilet, and I will pretty much just follow you out of my room. We've got our bags, you know, camera bags and stuff like that, and we can just pretty much chuck those out the window and. And run for it. And it was like, yeah, that's. That sounds like a plan. Even though Amanda had said the night that they drove her out to do that fake assassination, she said, we're driving past men on the street, sitting around fires with AK47s and stuff like that. It's just like, well, maybe under the COVID of darkness, we can run. We can try and knock on someone's door, See if they'll help us. So that was the plan. And sure enough, that night, right after, you know, final prayer, I heard Amanda knock. And I was standing there with my bag, ready to go, Saw her walk past, and just froze. Was just like, I'm so terrified. You know, today is the day I could potentially die and could hear her pacing in the bathroom. And after a minute or two, she came back. She's like, what the fuck are you doing? I said, I'm scared. Like. Like, I need to psych myself up for this. And she's like, I'm gonna go back to the room. I'm gonna give you half an hour, and I'm gonna knock again. And I'm like, okay, cool. The next time she knocked. And I, you know, as soon as she walked past, I came out, got into the bathroom, took out the three metal bars, took the bricks out, and actually put them on the ledge inside instead of just throwing them out the window and jumped down on the ground and basically then, you know, foothold for Amanda to put her foot in, and, you know, boosted her up to the window. And she was sort of contorting herself and twisting and trying to get out. And it felt like minutes, it was probably seconds. And she turned around, she's like, I can't fit. I was like, what do you mean? She's like, you need to take out another bar. And I was just like, get out. Get out. I don't care how you get out. And she's like, seriously, I can't fit. And then the realization of, well, if she can't fit this, I'm bigger than her. Like, there's no way I'm getting out of there. And I said, get down. And she jumped down, and she's like, what are you going to do? And I was like, I'll take your bag back to my room. Just go back to the bathroom and I'll work it out. I'll work something out. Like, but if they find both of us here, we're in trouble. And the most terrifying thing was Abdullah was the guard that was on duty that night, the guy that terrified me. So I've gone back to the room. I've tried to hide Amanda's bag in my room. And not that I had much to hide, like, at that stage, probably a mattress and mosquito net. And I'd been hoarding empty water bottles for some reason. You hoard shit when you don't have anything. And I was like, right, I'm gonna have to feign that I'm sick, that I have diarrhea. So I knocked on the door, and Abdullah walked down, you know, cranky as ever. And it's like, what? And I was like, miss Scotia. Miss Scotia. And he's like, go. And I was like, is he gonna follow Me to the bathroom, and thankfully he didn't. And there was, like, a little curtain sheet on the. On the bathroom door. So I've got in there, and I've sort of looked at this giant hole in the wall. It's just like, how do I fix that? Quietly. And managed to start to sort of rebuild a few bricks at a time. And then I'd go back to my room, wait another 20 minutes, knock again. He'd come down. What's like, no, Scotia. Diarrhea. Diarrhea. And it basically let me go. So it took me probably about two hours of doing that to rebuild it. And then got back to my room and just collapsed. Was like, physically and mentally just spent.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

So the first attempt was a failure, and they'd gotten away with it by the skin of their teeth. When Nigel wakes up the following morning, he goes back to the toilet and does what he needs to do to make that hole bigger. He removes another bar, covers up the hole as best he can, and heads back to his room to tell Amanda they're good to try again.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Once the window was open, knocked on. Knocked for Amanda to come to the window and said, right, we're good to go, but we're changing the plan. She's like, what do you mean we're changing the plan? I said, well, you told me when you. When they did that attempted assassination on you that there were men in the street with guns everywhere. I said, we're just going to run around the corner and be captured straight away. Like, that seems stupid. I said, it seems smarter for us to wait until Friday. So this was Thursday morning. Said, it seems smarter to wait till tomorrow. And we can run to the local mosque that is just behind the house because the call to prayer was literally right on top of us. And Amanda was like, sounds like a great idea, Nige. Like, absolutely agree with you. We've got to go today, though. And I was like, why do we have to go today? And she said, well, what happens if they move us tonight? Like, we lose our opportunity. And it was just like, you.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

You and your logic.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Yes.

[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

Yeah.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

It was always like, Friday, there's going to be massive amounts of people there. There's going to be an imam there for sure. Midday prayer. And it was just. Actually, it's true. Like, we could be moved at any stage. So I was like, right, today, midday, same thing. You knock to the toilet, I'll follow you out. And, you know, that part worked like clockwork. Got into the. Into the bathroom again. This time, took all the bars out, put them down on the floor, got the bricks out and actually threw them out the window. So there was no turning back. Boosted Amanda up, you know, she twisted, got out the window and disappeared. And then I obviously pulled myself up, was struggling to sort of get out the window, and I had to go head first and went to grab onto the gutter of our house and it pretty much collapsed. I nearly went head first down and managed to just scramble and grab myself. Got out, jumped down, you know, barefoot, feeling sand between my toes for the first time in months, and started to pull on my shoes and looked down the alleyway and there's a young kid who we had seen when we were together in that one particular house, because it's the second time we'd been at this house who literally saw us and just started screaming and saying something in Somali. So I've just grabbed my bag and legged it the opposite direction. Pretty much got to the edge of our house and the next door neighbor's house, and in front of us there was this. All this briar bush. So we could either turn left, which would take us back to the front of our compound. So the only option was to turn right. So I just literally, you know, best impersonation of Usain Bolt. Dancing on air, dancing on sand, sprinting. No idea where Amanda is by this stage. As I sort of run past the neighbour's house, look over my shoulder and see him standing at his. At his front gate. And it computes in my mind him saying, what are you doing in English? So to have been in that house for six weeks knowing that there was an English speaker who had a window opposite mine, who I had considered flicking a note into that house, but was always too scared to because we'd been told that Al Shabaab were all around us. Yeah, to have that compute in my mind that, oh, my God, there's this English speaker next door. And I just kept running. I remember running towards a woman who'd obviously been down to the market to do her shopping, and she just threw her bags in the air and turned around and was trying to run away from me. And I just overtook her and ran for a couple of hundred meters, got to a Tina section, looked to my right, saw the minaret of the mosque, looked to my left and saw a crowded marketplace. And obviously my brain has just gone, safety in numbers, run for the market. And I started running towards the market. And maybe after 100 meters I did a U turn and ran back past Amanda, got to that Tina section, and by then there was the. The next door neighbour was standing there at the Tina section of this dirt road and said, do you need help? And I just grabbed him and said, please help us, we need to get to the mosque. And it was, it was like Amanda and I'd sort of picked him up under the arms and were just now sprinting towards the mosque. And unbeknownst to us, Jamal and Abdullah were, you know, in fairly hot pursuit. We've gone up the side stairs of the mosque and Jesters are about to enter the building like a crack of an AK47 straight across the top of top of the mosque.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

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[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

Hey honey, it's Mom. Did you know if we switch to Verizon, we can get four phones for $0 plus four lines for $25 a line? Call me back, me again. That's just $100 a month for four lines on unlimited welcome plus four phones. No trade in needed. Call me. It's Mom. America's Best network Verizon. That's the one we're talking about. I'll send you a text.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

America's Best Network based on RootMetrics Best Overall Mobile Network Performance US 2nd Half 20254 new lines and unlimited welcome and autopay. See verizon.com for details.

[Grow Therapy Advertiser]

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[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Chapter nine she's just been executed. Nigel and Amanda had just made it to the local mosque with seconds to spare. Of course, Nigel had spent his captivity not just watching. He'd been learning. Learning Somali fragments of it anyway, enough to be understood in a moment of crisis. And, of course, learning something else, something that in this particular moment might actually carry more weight than any language. He'd learned the shahada. The shahada is the Muslim profession of faith, the most sacred statement in Islam. It is whispered into the ear of every newborn Muslim child as the first words they hear. And it is the words a Muslim strives to say as the last in their life. But you might still be thinking, why a mosque? The captors were motivated by an extreme interpretation of Islam. So why would running toward a mosque feel like running towards safety rather than straight back into danger? Well, the honest answer, of course, is they didn't know for sure that it would. They had no idea who was inside, no idea whether the imam would help them or hand them straight back, no idea whether the congregation would see two Western faces burst through the door and reach for a phone. In Somalia in 2008, with Al Shabaab controlling large parts of the country and embedding itself in communities across the region, the man standing at the front of that mosque could have been anyone. But they'd made a calculation. Not a certainty, a calculation. A mosque was a public space with a religious leader who had standing and authority in the community. If they could get inside, declare themselves as Muslims and appeal directly to that authority, they were at least giving themselves a fighting chance. But the open street didn't offer. On the street, there were two obvious foreigners running from something in a mosque, reciting the shahada in front of witnesses. They were at least something more complicated than that. It might work, it might not. But there was only one way to find out.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

I ran in with Amanda and with obviously this next door neighbor and basically just said, I win, I win, I win. Please help. Please help. Please help. One muslim, I am Muslim. One to hay Muslim, we are Muslim. And then started to say, the profession of faith a shadow Allah Allah il Allah Muhammadan abduhu a rasulahu and Then straight into the first surah of the Quran, Bismillahi ar rahmani ar rahim alhamdulillah. So I've got this verbal tiri. And then two older gentlemen sort of came up to us and said, who are you? What's going on in English? And explained that we had obviously been kidnapped for five months and that we were Muslim. And as I'm sort of explaining things to them, I just get coward punched straight to the back of the head. So Jamal and Abdullah are now in the mosque behind us. Jamal's punched me, and then he's grabbed my arm and he's trying to pull me out. And I pulled away from him with such force that it's just literally ripped the sleeve straight off my shirt trying to get away from him. Abdullah has ripped off Amanda's hijab and just has her by the hair and he's pulling her backwards. And then the next door neighbor, and there's two older men, you know, incredibly heroic, unarmed. So these guys, these two young kids have got AK47s and these three older Somalian men literally grab these guys by the scruff of the neck and throw them up against a wall and just start berating them in Somali. And then other people sort of come to shepherd us. And, you know, I'm asked, have you prayed? It's like, no, I've never prayed. I've never prayed in a mosque. I want to pray in a mosque with people. And they're like, come will let you pray. And, you know, people are saying, salaam alaikum. I'm like, walikum assalam. Doing all the things to show that I am in fact, Muslim and don't get the opportunity to pray. We're sort of pushed into the pulpit of the mosque and told to sit down. And I can remember there were two windows on either side of us, and I was just like, I saw this big black figure sort of appearing on the left hand side. I was like, can we shut the windows? Because I was scared that someone was just going to stick a gun through. And it was actually a woman in the full black hijab where you could just see the eyes. And we're sitting there, Amanda and I, you know, I'd read A Thousand Splendid Suns actually was the book not the Kite Runner. And in that book they talk about, obviously, it's obviously Afghan custom to get the Quran and kiss it and touch it to your head. So I'm like, that's obviously what you do. So got my Quran in my. My camera bag. So I pull it out and I'm kissing it. I'm touching it to my head, and they're all sort of looking at me like, what's the white dude doing that? It's crazy. At one stage, that black figure, which was the woman that had pushed her way into the mosque and sat down beside Amanda and I. And Amanda's obviously trying to communicate with her. She doesn't speak English. Amanda doesn't speak Somali. It's, you know, it's a commotion. It's complete chaos. You know, more people are coming into the mosque. Obviously, people were in the north of Mogadishu. I realized after my release, but obviously the word had got out that there were two Westerners in this local mosque. And more people are sort of pouring in to get a look at us. And at one stage, it was like. It was almost like the crowd started to part. And I sort of finally got to see what they were parting for. And it was a fairly big Somali dude, had a really good beard, which was strange for a Somali man. Most of them don't have great facial hair. But this guy's walked through with an AK47 strapped to his chest. Never seen him before. He's fairly solid builds. And he walks straight up to me, you know, standing in front of me, and he's like, assalamualaikum. I'm like, waikum assalamu alaikum. And he's like, wanna Muslim? I'm like, wanna hae Muslim. We are Muslim. And then he speaks to me in English, and he goes, how is the religion of Islam, brother? And I said, the religion of Islam is the most beautiful religion. It's a religion of peace. I've come here in peace. I've not done anything to anyone. We've been kidnapped. And he takes off his AK47. He said, Brother, this is the gun of the Muslim man. And because you're. You're my brother in the religion of Islam, he said, I want you to take my AK47. And he literally leant down and lay an AK47 in my lap. And again, that manic thought. I can see it in your eyes. Of, like, how many bullets are in that clip. And how do I take this thing off safety? Because I'm just gonna do. I'm ready to go. I'm just gonna do that. Pulp Fiction,

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

you're running backwards out of

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

the chick in the couch, just like, who's waking up after a bad drug overdose. But then having a really clear thought of. I was like, I never want to know what it's like to take another human life, I would struggle with that. So I picked up his gun. I said, brother, it's haram for me as a muslim man to hurt another muslim. So I had no need for your gun. I don't want your gun. Please take it. And he said, brother, come with me. Come with me, and I'll ensure you're safe. And I said, brother, there is an imam who is coming who is going to interview us, and he's going to understand that we are, in fact, muslim, that we have converted to islam. And we've been told that if that is the case, then he will ensure our safety. And he basically said, okay, if that's what you wish, and sort of turned around and walked back through the crowd and disappeared.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Who this mystery man was and whether or not Nigel and amanda would have been safe leaving with him, they will never know. Nigel would see him one last time before the ordeal was over. But here they were in an ever increasingly chaotic situation, surrounded by people arguing, pushing their captors still inside, trying to get them back, until all of a sudden, the mood shifts to utter fear and panic as people begin to scramble.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

I could see between people's legs, and then I could just see mask gunmen starting to run in from the sides of the mosque. And it was just like, I don't recognize any of those people. And it was just like, this is going to end in a complete bloodbath. People are going to get killed today because of us. And it was weird that the crowd sort of enveloped us again and sort of sheltered us. And it was like they were fearful, but they were trying to protect us. I don't know. That's what it felt like to me. So, you know, by this stage, you had Jamal and abdullah, who were sort of standing sentry at the pulpit to try and protect their prize. The entrance that we had obviously come through on the side of the building. I then hear ahmed and captain yahya and a few of the other sort of head people, you know, AK47s in the air, pistols in the air, screaming, yelling as they push their way sort of through and around the crowd and make their way into the pulpit and behind us. And then upmed just comes up to me behind with a pistol and literally starts pistol whipping me onto the back of the head. So I just go into complete, protective, fatal position on the ground, being punch kicked, screamed at. Amanda's copying the same. She's obviously starts to get dragged out past me with this woman in black who's you Know, hold it, trying to hold on to her, trying to ensure that she's safe. I don't know. So I'm trying to obviously protect myself. See what's happening with Amanda as she slowly gets dragged out of the building to the opposite side of the mosque and then out those doors. And then I can no longer see her again. And then five, 10 seconds later, I just hear a single AK47 gunshot. That's just like. She has just been executed. And it's just like, right, today is the day I die. This is. I think I have literally minutes left to live. Some of the guys that had obviously taken Amanda out, then back in on top of me, I feel a couple of them grab my ankles and then I'm dragged basically to the main doors of the mosque. So right, right down through the mosque I get sort of pulled down some concrete stairs and very, very calm at that stage, which really surprised me. And very clear thought of. I really wish I could have got a. I really wish I could get my hands on a mobile phone to be able to call mum and dad and just tell them how much I love them and how grateful I am for them life they've given me and how sorry I am for the trauma that I've caused them in the last five months. I then feel myself being literally picked up above everyone's head in this sort of human stretcher carry as I men march towards the, I guess the compound gates of the courtyard. And I was very aware that once I was outside that courtyard, I was sort of off holy land in a way and was like, okay, this is where I meet my end obviously, and was carried through those gates and obviously trying to look around. I look over my left shoulder and see the two vehicles that were always transported, transported in. I can see Amanda in the back seat of the. The Toyota Land Cruiser still trying to fight and get away, which was amazing. Just a relief to know that she wasn't dead. As I'm then sort of marched over above people's heads, the guy that had given me the gun is beside the. The vehicle being restrained by four people. Like they're sitting on him, trying to keep him on the ground. As I'm then bundled into the back seat next to Amanda. And then Abdullah jumps in beside me and Jamal jumps in beside Amanda. And I'm obviously looking at Amanda. She's got some swelling starting to happen on her face where she's obviously been punched or hit with something fairly solid. She's got this. This stupid smile on her face and she looks at me with this big grin. And she goes, fuck, that was intense. To say, yeah, fuck, that was intense. And she's like, nige, I'm so sorry I made you escape. And I said, amanda, you didn't make me do anything. Like, that was a decision we both made, like. And that was a decision, I think from my perspective, I was like, for five months, I had absolutely felt like I had zero control. And I felt like that I was. I was pretty sure after five months that. That I was going to die in Somalia. And it was. For me, it was like, if I'm going to die, I'm not just going to take a bullet to the back of the head. I'm actually going to make people work for it. Like, you're going to. You're going to have to work to take my life. And I said to Amanda, you didn't. You didn't make me do anything. Like, for 25 minutes or whatever it was, we basically had taken back control. And it felt so powerful to basically be in control for such a short period of time.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

And that would be their last opportunity to ever try anything like that again. As the car they're bundled into speeds off and away from the chaos that is behind them. But the question again becomes, where are they going? What will happen to them and will they die?

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Even the next few weeks, it was just intense. Like being woken up in the middle of the night with a torch and five AK47s, like, literally in my face, and I'm just like, what's going on? And then they would just walk out.

[Podcast Narrator/Host]

Next time on what I survived.

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

Moon in the sky. I'm looking at the moon in the

[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

sky this shouldn't come as a surprise, but I can't sleep. War in my mind I'm trying to

[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

fight a war in my mind I

[Mom (Verizon Caller)]

don't know who's the winner tonight, but it ain't me.

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[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

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[Nigel Brennan (Narrator/Storyteller)]

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