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Four aid workers kidnapped from Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp on Friday arrived in Nairobi on Monday (July 2nd) after being freed from their captors in Somalia, AFP reported.

"We are happy to be alive. We are happy this has ended," said Qurat-Ul-Ain Sadazai, a Canadian of Pakistani origin and one of the kidnapped employees of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Sadazai, 38, and her colleagues -- Steven Dennis, 37, also Canadian; Astrid Sehl, 33, of Norway; and Glenn Costes, 40, of the Philippines -- were freed by a joint force of Somali and Kenyan forces after a brief gunfight in which one of the kidnappers was killed and three suspects were arrested.

"Thanks to God we foiled their aims of taking the hostages into the forest," said Somali General Osmail Sahardid, who led the operation.

With the exception of a bullet wound to Costes' leg, the group arrived in Nairobi unharmed.

"We are thankful to know that our four colleagues have been found and safely returned to Kenya. This is a day of relief for us and for the families of the abducted," said NRC Secretary General Elisabeth Rasmusson.

"Our thoughts go to the family of the NRC driver, Abdi Ali, who was killed during the attack Friday, and to our two local employees who are currently undergoing treatment in hospital for injuries inflicted in the incident," she said.

NRC spokesperson Rolf Vestvick said the agency reduced its operations in Dadaab at the weekend, but did not cease its relief efforts. "We hope we will be able to continue our work," he told CTV News Channel.