kidnappings in puntyland

Last Updated: Thursday, 10 May 2007, 09:55 GMT 10:55 UK

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Kidnapping fear for NI aid worker

An aid agency worker from Northern Ireland is one of two people feared kidnapped in Somalia.
It is believed the Care International worker went missing on Wednesday, along with a Kenyan colleague in the Puntland region of the country.

An agency spokesperson said local authorities are working on the case and are in contact with tribal elders.

She said such incidents were not common in the region, but sometimes "different clan issues" were involved.

"Right now we really don't know much and we are trying to investigate, working with the people who are in charge on the ground," she told RTE radio.

Puntland is an arid region of north-east Somalia, which declared itself an autonomous state in August 1998.

The move was partly an attempt to avoid the clan warfare which engulfed southern Somalia. Nevertheless, the region has endured armed conflict.

The aid agency made headline news in 2005, when its Dublin-born official Margaret Hassan was abducted in Baghdad.

A video of her apparent murder was released a month later, but her body has never been recovered.