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Somali gunmen abduct British aid worker, free Somali

16 October 2010 00:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Masked Somali gunmen kidnapped a Briton working for Save the Children in the Horn of Africa country late on Thursday, the British charity said, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The gunmen seized the man and a Somali also working for Save the Children from a guesthouse compound in the town of Adado near the border with Ethiopia, but later released the Somali captive, according to his relatives.
"Save the Children was assessing the feasibility of starting up a humanitarian programme to help malnourished and sick children and their families in the area," the charity said in a statement.
"We are extremely concerned about the welfare of those being held and urgently call upon whoever is holding them captive to release them unconditionally," it said.
Kidnapping for ransoms has become a major money-spinner in lawless Somalia, notably among the pirate gangs that plague the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, linking Europe to Africa and Asia.
But the capture of foreign nationals inside Somalia has become relatively rare after nearly all aid agencies barred expatriate workers from operating there as hardline Islamist militants gained control of more territory.
The increasing insecurity has, however, spawned a thriving private security business run by expatriates, largely centered around the capital Mogadishu.
PIRATES INVOLVED?
Relatives of the Somali captive, Bashir Yusuf, said he had been set free by the gunmen. It was not immediately possible to verify the reports.
"Bashir confirmed to us he had been released. He told us he was on his way into town and that the armed men went with his foreign colleague," family member Abdukadir Hassan said.
It was not immediately clear how they had seized the charity employees. Initial reports said they had been taken to an area controlled by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels.
Later, a pro-government Sunni militia said a smaller insurgent group known as Hizbul Islam was behind the kidnapping, possibly in cahoots with pirates, and that the Briton was being taken to the coastal pirate base of Haradheere.
"We have confirmed that about 15 armed Hizbul Islam fighters kidnapped the aid workers. They may be assisted by pirates," Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, the spokesman of Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, told Reuters by phone from Adado.
No confirmation from Hizbul Islam was immediately available.
On Friday, fighting broke out between al Shabaab insurgents and combatants from the moderate Sufi Ahlu Sunna group in Adado, in the region where pirates are holding hostage a retired British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler.
"Our main objective is to sweep al Shabaab from central Somalia," one Ahlu Sunna commander, Abdullahi Farah, said. Local people said Ahlu Sunna later took control of Adado.
Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have fought a three-year insurgency to topple Somalia’s fragile interim government, which they say is a puppet of the West, and want to impose a strict version of Islamic sharia law throughout the country.
The insecurity in south and central Somalia has spread into the country’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland where militants have vowed to wage jihad until they defeat the administration.
Puntland Information Minister Abdihakim Guled survived a bomb blast in the coastal town of Bosasso on Friday, local officials and residents said. The administration said the roadside remote-controlled explosion had targeted the minister, who suffered minor injuries.