"Gratitude to God and admiration for those who contributed to their liberation from captivity" was expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, in a letter of "joy and thanksgiving for the 21 church-related humanitarian workers whose lives have been spared in Afghanistan".

The letter was sent to the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea, the Rev Kwon Oh-sung after all of the remaining 19 Christian South Korean hostages were released in several rounds last week.

In the six weeks since the group, originally numbering 23, were kidnapped from a main road in Afghanistan, two male members of the group were killed by their Taliban captors while two female members were later released as a "gesture of goodwill" when negotiations started to make progress.

In his letter, Kobia also gave assurances of the "continued prayer and concern on the part of Christians in every part of the world" to the "families and friends of the two hostages who lost their lives".

The WCC General Secretary recently met with relatives of the hostages on his recent visit to South Korea and had earlier called on WCC member churches to pray for "a peaceful end" to the crisis and the release of the hostages.

The freed hostages finally began their emotional journey home to South Korea last Friday.