An Australian charity worker has been freed after four months in captivity in Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
Katherine Jane Wilson — known to friends as "Kerry Jane" — was kidnapped by armed men in April posing as intelligence agents from her charity's office in the city of Jalalabad.
Officials have for months said they were working to find Wilson, and on Monday Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed the charity boss had been released.
"She is now safe and well," Bishop said in a statement. "I am relieved for Kerry Jane, and her family with whom I have remained in close contact."
Bishop praised the work of Afghan authorities for helping facilitate the release.
She did not provide further details on the circumstances under which Wilson was freed, but Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said it was the result of a special-forces operation in Nangarhar Province.
Several individuals also were arrested in connection to the kidnapping, the agency added.
Wilson, who is in her 60s, has worked in Afghanistan for around 20 years. She is the founder and executive director of Zardozi, a non-governmental organization supporting female artists and entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.
Another Australian, who has not been publicly named, was kidnapped in August with an American colleague in Kabul. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
