The parents of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout are grateful for the concern shown by Canadians, says Red Deer MP Bob Mills.

Mills spoke with Amanda’s father Jon Lindhout, of Sylvan Lake on Monday morning and updated him on the efforts Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada is making on behalf of his daughter, who was abducted at gunpoint in Somalia on Saturday. An Australian colleague and Somalian driver and two guards were also kidnapped.

Mills, a former teacher who once taught Jon Lindhout, said he is doing as well as can be expected.

“I think he’s really happy that everyone is involved,” said Mills. “It’s pretty tough. I have kids and I know what I would be like if it was me.”

Mills has been in contact with Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson’s and the department staff handling the Lindhout case. Mills is confident everything possible is being done to seek the former Red Deer-area woman’s release.

“Certainly things are happening and the foreign office is 100 per cent engaged, right from the minister on down.”

Mills said privacy issues limit how much he can say about Lindhout, and family members have been advised not to speak with the media. Lindhout, 27, has a number of relatives in the Red Deer area. Her mother Lorinda Stewart lives in British Columbia.

“I think the critical time is the next 24 hours. I think it’s critical we do what the officials say.

“It’s pretty delicate. Obviously, we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”

Lindhout is a freelance journalist who has spent most of the year reporting from Baghdad and began filing weekly columns to the Red Deer Advocate in March. She only recently journeyed to Mogadishu to report on that country’s ongoing unrest and refugee crisis.

Her group was abducted while travelling to Elasha, about 20 km south of Mogadishu, to do a story on those left homeless by ongoing conflict in the area.

A Foreign Affairs spokesperson e-mailed the Advocate on Monday saying there was no new information available.

In Somalia, the secretary general of the National Union of Somali Journalists said in a Monday e-mail that the abductors had not made any contact with family, the journalists’ hotel or the union.

The union has contacted police of the transitional government, and local militia groups such as the Militias of Union of Islamic Courts, Al-Shabaab Islmaic group and others in the region and all have denied any involvement.

“But we believe that regional militias of lower Shabelle region are the ones behind the abductions because they are the ones who are controlling the area (where) the journalists were abducted and they abducted the journalists for financial purposes,” says the e-mail from Omar Faruk Osman to a Canadian representative with the International Federation of Journalists.

The same militia group kidnapped two Italian humanitarian aid workers, who were later ransomed for US$1 million, says Osman. The Italian government has denied paying a ransom.

The aid workers were released in early August after being abducted in May. Several other foreigners were abducted in April and May and their whereabouts reportedly remain unknown.

In a statement on its website, the journalists union condemns the latest abductions. “We are appalled by this cruel abduction of journalists and call for the immediate release of our colleagues, who are being held captive because of their noble work for Somali people,” says the statement.

Well-wishers are already flocking to Facebook groups dedicated to Lindhout. The “Let’s pray for a safe return for Amanda Lindhout” site had attracted more than 800 members by Monday afternoon and was growing rapidly. Another group had more than 170.

Many offered prayers for Lindhout’s safe return and one person even composed a poem about her.

Contact Paul Cowley at pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com