[WATCH] US and Australian hostages beg Trump to negotiate release in Taliban video

An American and an Australian professor who were kidnapped in Kabul five months ago have pleaded with US President-elect Donald Trump to help secure their release in a video released by the Taliban.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday and apparently filmed on 1 January, is the first public sign of life of the two teachers since their abduction.

Kevin King, 60, an American, and Timothy John Weeks, 48, an Australian, were kidnapped from their vehicle on 7 August outside the campus of the American University of Afghanistan where they both taught by gunmen in security forces uniforms.

Later that month US forces in Afghanistan failed in an attempt to rescue the men, the Pentagon said.

In the 13-minute video, the pair beg the American government to negotiate with their captors. The Taliban appear to have demanded the release of several “soldiers” in exchange for the professors.

“If we stay here for much longer, we will be killed. I don’t want to die here,” Weeks says in the video.

 “Donald Trump, sir, I ask you, please. This is in your hands. I ask you please to negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed,” Weeks said, adding that he feared he would not see his gravely ill mother again.

The abduction of the two was part of a recent string of kidnappings of foreigners in Kabul, which included two other Australians. In August, an Australian aid worker, Kerry Jane Wilson, was released after four months in captivity. In November, another Australian woman was abducted. Her whereabouts are not publicly known.