Somali kidnappers threaten to kill Canadian journalist, Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan if ransom is not paid.

Press TV's correspondent in Mogadishu reported on Monday that one of the kidnappers said if the $2.5 million ransom was not paid in 15 days, the journalists would be killed.

Lindhout and Brennan were kidnapped while en route to Hawa Abdi refugee camp in Afgoye -- a city located 28 km southwest of Mogadishu -- from the Somali capital, on August 23.

Lindhout, 27, a freelance television and print reporter from Sylvan Lake, Alberta, filed stories from Iraq on behalf of Press TV, Iran's 24-hour English-language news channel.

The abduction comes amid the unrest that continues unabated in Somalia. Years of fighting between rival warlords and the inability to deal with famine and disease have so far resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people.

Journalists are frequently taken hostage for ransom in the Horn of Africa country.

RZS/RA