20 Apr 2009

Gunmen kidnap foreign aid workers in Somalia

9:14 am on 20 April 2009

Three aid workers have been kidnapped by gumen in central Somalia.

They are believed to include a Belgian and a Dane.

In a separate incident, masked gunmen killed a local employee of another charity in the town of Merka, 90km south of the capital Mogadishu.

Aid workers and journalists are often kidnapped in Somalia. They are generally released after a ransom is paid.

In February, two elderly Italian nuns were released by Somali gunmen who kidnapped them during a cross-border raid into Kenya in November.

More than 3 million Somalis depend on emergency food aid. There has been no functioning government in Somalia since 1991.