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Aid workers kidnapped in Somalia
Aid workers kidnapped in Somalia.
Last Modified: 06 May 2008 21:59 GMT

Puntland has been relatively peaceful compared to Somalia proper [EPA]

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.
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