By Guled Mohamed
Sunday, May 13, 2007
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MOGADISHU, May 13 (Reuters) - Gunmen holding two foreign aid workers hostage in northern Somalia have threatened to kill them if regional authorities try to rescue them, a local official said on Sunday.
"It's true they are threatening to kill them," said Abdirahman Mohamed, information minister for the semi-autonomous Puntland region. "We will not send troops at the moment."
Mohamed said clan leaders were being sent to negotiate the release of the the Kenyan and Briton working for the relief agency CARE International, who were seized on Wednesday.
"We don't know exactly what they are demanding but sources close to them say they accuse aid agencies of bias," Mohamed told Reuters by telephone. "They say CARE is helping other areas and ignoring them. I think that is why they abducted the two."
CARE International's regional spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.
Abdiqani Hassan, a reporter based in Puntland's main port Bossasso, told Reuters he had spoken to the kidnappers' leader, known only as Mohamed, by satellite telephone late on Saturday.
"The hostages are fine and are now swimming in a swamp. If Puntland troops try to rescue them by force we will kill them," Mohamed said.
"We abducted the hostages in order to claim ransom and embarrass the Puntland administration. We don't gain anything from it," he added.
A Kenyan maritime official has said the two hostages may have been seized by local fishermen for use as a bargaining chip in a dispute with the authorities over fishing permits.
Puntland runs itself independently of the rest of Somalia and has been more peaceful than most areas in recent years.
But the whole country, which has been deprived of effective central rule for 16 years, is dangerous for aid workers.
In a separate incident, gunmen at a checkpoint shot dead a Somali national working as a contractor for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Pascal Hundt, ICRC country director for Somalia, told Reuters the attack took place late on Saturday as an aid convoy headed for central Somalia from the capital Mogadishu.
"Gunmen indiscriminately opened fire on the convoy. I don't how many were injured but one person has been killed," he said. "It again shows the difficulties of getting aid to its beneficiaries in Somalia."
Hundt said the gunfire may have been triggered by a dispute at the checkpoint, where militiamen typically demand a fee for allowing vehicles to pass. (Additional reporting by Jeremy Clarke in Nairobi)
Source: Reuters, May 13, 2007