SOMALI GUNMEN DEMAND$ 1 MILLION FOR FOREIGN AID WORKERS

Monday, 20 April 2009 13:18

MOGADISHU
Gunmen have demanded a $1 million (684 million pound) ransom for the release of three aid workers taken over the weekend, a local elder said on Monday.
Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous places for aid workers and attacks on relief organisations -- normally blamed on Islamist rebels or clan militias -- have forced groups to scale back on humanitarian operations.

"We came back this morning with empty hands," said local elder Aden Isak Ali from Rabdhure town, near where gunmen seized a medical team from the charity MSF-Belgium.

"The gunmen who hijacked MSF aid workers told us this morning that they will only release the foreign workers if they are given one million U.S. dollars as ransom," he said.

The MSF in Brussels said it had lost contact with its team in central Somalia, which included a Belgian and a Dutchman. A local MSF worker said a Somali employee was also taken.

Aid workers have often been targeted in Somalia where fighting over the last two years has uprooted more than one million people. The nation has been mired in civil strife since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: Reuters


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