The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Mogadishu

Pirates have freed two German hostages who were kidnapped in June from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden, a local governor said Saturday.

The hostages were released Friday night from a hideout in a mountainous area near Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia, said Muse Geele Yusuf, the governor of Bari region.

"Two German hostages have been released," Yusuf told The Associated Press by telephone. He said a $1 million ransom was paid, but it was not clear by whom.

Kidnappings and piracy are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand - and often receive - huge ransoms. The 1,880-mile coast is the longest in Africa.

Details of the release were sketchy. At the time of the kidnapping, officials said a German couple was seized along with their son and a French yacht captain.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Since Somalia does not have a navy, France and the U.S. are drafting a U.N. resolution that would allow international naval vessels into Somali waters.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

Somalia's shaky transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert real control.