Somali gunmen abduct two foreign aid workers

September 25, 2008 (PARIS) — Somali unknown gunmen kidnapped two aid workers near the Ethiopian border last Monday, a French Charity group confirmed.

Medecins du Monde or Doctors of the World confirmed Tuesday that two of its staff, were abducted by a Somali armed group without elaboration. They are a doctor from Japan and a nurse from the Netherlands.

The aid group stated it is in contact with the authorities, with its other staffers in the Horn of Africa country and with the two staffers’ families.

The two aid workers who were providing medical assistance to the drought affected population of Fadhigaradle village in the Ethiopia’s Somali region.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that the abduction but said there are no claim of responsibility from the kidnappers, who usually seize foreigners and demand ransoms for their release.

An Ethiopian rebel movement fighting for the region’s independence, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, condemned the abduction, calling it a cowardly act.

Somali groups abduct and often kill local employees working with the foreign aid organisations and demand ransom for the foreigners who are freed after the payment

However, two foreigners, a Briton and a Kenyan working on a U.N.-funded project are still being held since last April after their kidnapping. Reports say they are in Jilib town, 280 km (175 miles) south of Mogadishu.

The Ethiopia’s backed transitional government does not have control of large parts of the country where Islamists insurgents and clan militias wage war against authorities.

Somalia has been torn by 17 years of almost uninterrupted civil conflict since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre.

(ST)