Nigel Brennan

They opened these large, large metal gates to a compound.

So pretty much everyone in Somalia has these massive 12 or 14 foot high walls with razor wire and stuff like that on them and big metal gates.

And when those gates opened, I could see inside and then there were more guys with masked faces and guns and stuff like that.

And it's just like, okay, so this is obviously been well planned.

they obviously thought she was trying to hide something so when she got back into the room they came in and like i was they walked in and they basically told me to close my eyes um um and obviously which i did listening to what they were telling me to do and then put their hands down amanda's breasts and down her pants which she screamed at um and it was just like okay this this isn't just a meeting this is more sinister for sure

And then from then it was, I guess, over the next few hours, you know, I was fortunate at that stage to have a packet of cigarettes and was smoking like an absolute fiend because I think in a stressful time it was just like, this is going to calm me down.

It probably didn't.

They came in, they wanted our passports, they wanted our cash.

And it was interesting.

The one thing that I did do the morning before we left, when I did have that, I guess, intuition, I was carrying my passport and I was carrying almost 2,000 euros in currency.

And I actually said, I'm going to leave this at the hotel.

And I put it in the manager's office.

But they're like, where are your passports?

They're at the hotel.

Where's your cash?

It's like, we don't have any cash.

Obviously, I had my camera bags with two digital cameras and a film camera.

And lenses and those sorts of things, they weren't interested in that.

I still had my mobile phone in my back pocket at this stage and was thinking about, do I try and call someone?

Obviously, just completely full of fear, too, that if I get caught with that, then what are the ramifications for it?