The American grandmother who was kidnapped during her Ugandan safari trip and held for five days before being released in exchange for a ransom has told how she feared she would be brutalized and raped by her four armed kidnappers.

Kimberly Endicott, 56, was snatched from her jeep in the Queen Elizabeth National Park along with her driver on April 2.

She was held for five days by a group of kidnappers before being dropped off on the border between Uganda and Congo in exchange for a ransom paid by the Ugandan government. Eight people were arrested in connection with her kidnapping in the days that followed.

In her first interview about the ordeal, she told CBS's Gayle King how she did not immediately realize that her four kidnappers were there to take her when they emerged from a 'perfectly square bush' during an evening game ride.

Once she was in captivity, she said she tried to 'humanize' herself to the men who took her to stop them from harming her.

They never physically or sexually assaulted her which was her greatest fear.

'I don't know these men, I don't know what they're capable of. How do I get them to shoot me and just shoot me instead of dismembering me or raping me,' she said, recalling her strategy to get through the experience or die with the least amount of terror possible.

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Kimberly Endicott spoke for the first time since being freed by her kidnappers in an interview on CBS This Morning on Thursday and Friday

What are you thinking is going to happen? Where is he taking you?



"That's what I don't know... And then the sun is setting and we keep walking. And it gets to complete, like, pitch darkness... I look up in the sky and I see the most beautiful sky I've ever seen in my life." pic.twitter.com/EkNf5agd3X — CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) April 26, 2019

'If I ran, oh I think that would just make them angry and I think I would probably get treated pretty badly if I tried to run. There's no place to run,' she said.

Endicott added that it was her 'greatest' fear that she would be sexually or physically assaulted but she insisted the men never harmed her.

'He had my arm and he was, "run run run or I'll slap you." I felt him shaking when he had a hold of my arm and I thought to myself, "Is this methamphetamine or is this fear?"

After first being snatched from her car along with her driver, she said she tried to speak to them to make herself 'a human to them.'

They had told her to run, she said, and threatened her.

'He had my arm and he was, "run run run or I'll slap you." I felt him shaking when he had a hold of my arm and I thought to myself, "Is this methamphetamine or is this fear? If it's drugs then I'm in a world of problems.

'So I'm running through bush, hard ground and needles and I remember I keep yelling, "my feet, my feet, my feet."

'They said, "If you do what we say you'll be OK." I remember I just kept saying, "You took me away. You took me away."

'This weird gulping that I kept doing, I found out later that it's actually a fear response,' she said.

Once the initial kidnapping had taken place, she recalled it becoming very dark.

'The sun is setting and we keep walking. It gets to complete, pitch darkness. At one point we stopped and I look up in the sky and I see the most beautiful sky I've ever seen in my life.

'It was incredible. It's nothing like I've ever seen before. That was when I became very aware of humanizing myself to them.

They could have sold me to a different group....It could have been so much worse than it was

'I said, "Look at the sky. We don't have that at home. Do you see that? That's the milky way."

'That became my mission for myself was to be a human with them. Not only for them to see me that way but for me to see them that way,' she said.

Endicott said she was able to speak to her daughter on the phone and that despite fearing for her life, she never once cried or screamed.

'I was able to call my daughter. She was beside herself. I'm not beside myself. I said, "Let's get it together but tell everybody what's happening, tell everyone what's happening,"' she said.

Remarkably, Endicott said she was grateful to her captors who she viewed both as her kidnappers and as 'protectors'.

'Those young men were both my captors and my protectors. They could have sold me to a different group. When I went out in the open, they had guns.

'That protected me. It could have been so much worse than it was,' she said.

When she realized ransom had been paid, she said she felt 'grateful'.

'When we pulled into camp, I realized just what my government did for me. I was overcome with shame for thinking they didn't do anything and gratitude like I've never felt in my life,' she said.

The US refused to pay the ransom and it was the Ugandan government which gave the kidnappers $30,000 for her release after days of negotiations.

Despite her ordeal, Endicott insisted that Uganda is a safe country and that her captors were merely opportunists trying to make money.

Endicott said she tried to make herself 'human' to her kidnappers to try to stay alive. They never physically assaulted her, she said, but it was her 'greatest fear' that she would be raped or beaten

'I'm the exception to the rule. That was the other thing, the feeling of what this is going to do to this country.

'These are immensely friendly people,' she said, speaking of Ugandans.

'Everyone in hospitality, when you have a conversation with them, the last thing they say to you is, "Please, tell all your friends to come."'

Endicott said that she feels she will 'relive' the ordeal for years to come and revealed that she was triggered during a walk in California, where she lives, when she heard the crunch of her boot on leaves after returning home two weeks ago.

Describing the moment she was taken from her car, she said: 'All of a sudden, the four men come out of a perfectly square bush in front of us. My first thought was, there must be something happening behind us and these are rangers,' Endicott, who lives in California, said.

She said that because they were armed, her first thought was that they worked for Wild Frontiers, the tour company she was with.

It felt like a vortex sucking us in...When I think back about it, it felt like "whoosh" and that's it. We're off. Kimberly Endicott, 56

'They're armed. They have guns. I've been gorilla trekking with rangers that have guns.

'There were [alarm bells] but there were alarm bells of something must be behind us.

'Looking at them it became apparent pretty quickly that no, that's not what this is.

'They were not in uniform, they were rag tag.

'They were a little bit of everything. And then they made us get out of the vehicle,' she said.

'They make us get out of the vehicle, they make us sit on the ground. And that's where things go very um, I don't know how to describe it.

'There's really not a word to describe what that feels like. Pure fear. But that almost doesn't do it justice,' she said.

King asked if what she felt was 'terror', to which she replied: 'That's closer maybe.

'But this weird whiteness, brightness, again I don't really have a good word for it but I just sat there and just faced forward and sat there and they went in and ransacked the vehicle and took out anything that was of value to them and then came back.

Kim Endicott and her driver Jean Paul Mirenge Remezo were kidnapped on April 2 and released five days later. They are shown before she departed the wilderness lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park for the Ugandan capital after being freed

The kidnappers were arrested in the Kanugu district on Tuesday in raids

'The elderly couple I don't believe were sitting down.

'They were like in their later 70s, the gentlemen had a cane and they let them stay and then boom - it felt like a vortex sucking us in.

'When I think back about it, it felt like whoosh and that's it. We're off,' she said.

The elderly couple were not taken with Endicott and her driver. So far, details of how they were treated while in captivity have not been shared.

Endicott's release came after five days of negotiations and deliberation between the safari company she was staying with, the US government and Ugandan officials.

Initially, the kidnappers had requested a $500,000 ransom which all parties flatly rejected.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated unequivocally that the US would not meet the kidnappers' demands as a matter of policy.

DailyMail.com obtained footage of the moment Endicott returned to camp, barefoot, on April 9 after being dropped off at the Congolese border. She was helped inside by armed guards

Endicott is pictured on April 9, immediately after arriving back at the lodge, following her rescue

When she was suddenly released on April 9, the resounding question was who paid for her freedom.

Wild Frontiers, the company she was with, vehemently denied putting up the money as did Ugandan police officials.

Driver Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo, 48, was also freed on Sunday

'It's pretty obvious something happened but there was never $500,000 or any amount paid by us.

'There's a lot of problems in Uganda with this. Everybody's terrified that this is going to make us a target,' a company director, who did not want to be named, told DailyMail.com.

However the country's Minister for tourism soon admitted that they paid.

In an interview with NBS, a television network in Uganda, he said: 'It had to be taken. The money had to be taken. Money is money.

'Our first priority, number one, was to make sure they were safe. I don't think it should be turned into a very big situation,' he said.

President Trump was among those who called for her safe return.

He tweeted: 'Uganda must find the kidnappers of the American Tourist and guide before people will feel safe in going there. Bring them to justice openly and quickly!'

None of the eight suspects who were arrested in connection with the kidnapping have been named.