Mike Durant, the pilot of a U.S Army Special Operations Black Hawk helicopter, was shot down and captured by followers of the Somali faction leader, Mohammed Aidid on 3 October 1993. Almost twenty American servicemen lost their lives during the confrontation and Durant himself suffered severe leg and back injuries.


For the next 11 days Durant would be held captive in Mogadishu, becoming the centre of international attention and, for a short time, the world's highest profile detainee.


The period immediately following his capture and the first few days that Durant spent in captivity were, in his own words, terrifying and are described in his 2003 book In the Company of Heroes (Penguin 2003).


The book also recounts his meeting on 8 October with an ICRC delegate who was given just five minutes notice that she would be permitted to see him.


Durant told the ICRC in a recent interview that he would never forget the moment that the delegate walked through the door of where he was being held and the emotional impact the visit provoked.


The impending visit also produced an improvement in Durant's conditions of detention as the Somalis cleaned up his cell and gave him a change of clothes and a bed to sleep in to replace the concrete floor. Durant is convinced that the ICRC's involvement made his captors more careful with him and more aware of their accountability.


Most appreciated was the opportunity to write Red Cross messages to family and friends – described by Durant as "tremendously uplifting".


Durant says he left Somalia with a great respect for the work ICRC delegates do and that he understands that the ICRC's neutrality has to be maintained if it is to continue to help those detained, as he once was, during the course of armed conflict.