Armed men in north-eastern Somalia have kidnapped two foreign aid workers in the port town of Bosaso, a regional official has said.
He said two women working with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) were taken in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland.
"Two foreign female MSF workers were kidnapped by armed men in central Bosaso. Policemen are chasing the kidnappers," Bile Mohamud Qabowsade, a Puntland information ministry official, said on Wednesday.
On Monday, armed men released a French cameraman who had been kidnapped in the same region for more than a week. Officials said no ransom was paid.
Gwen Le Gouil was in Bosaso to shoot a documentary on the mass smuggling of refugees from Somalia and other war-torn Horn of Africa countries across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen when he was captured on December 16.
In May, gunmen kidnapped two aid workers - a Kenyan and a Briton - employed by CARE International in the same region.
Puntland, which declared its semi-autonomous status in 1998, is relatively peaceful compared to Somalia proper, which has been wracked by violence since former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.