(photo: africaguide.com)
(From CNN.com)
MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) — Two aid workers, one British and one Kenyan, are missing feared kidnapped in northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, their organization said on Thursday.
CARE International said the Briton, who is from Northern Ireland, and his colleague had been missing in the Horn of Africa nation since at least Wednesday. A diplomatic source said the incident did not appear to be terrorist-related.
CARE spokeswoman Beatrice Spadacini said it was thought the abductions might be connected with a local issue and that tribal elders were working towards securing a release.
“People are confident,” she said.
A Kenyan source, who tracks Somalia but asked not to be named, said gunmen seized the relief workers in a village some 75 miles (120 km) south of Puntland’s capital Bossasso.
There was no word on who the attackers might be.
Puntland runs itself independently from the rest of Somalia and has been relatively more peaceful in recent years.
But the whole Somali region has a history of abductions and assassinations of local and foreign aid workers, particularly in the self-declared independent enclave of Somaliland. Authorities generally blame militant Islamists for attacks on foreigners.
