Search operations continue for
aid workers captured in Somalia
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Police in Somalia's northern breakaway
region of Puntland continued their search operations
Thursday for two foreign female aid workers kidnapped a day
earlier by gunmen, a minister said.
"The policemen are continuing their search operations
around the mountainous area where the kidnappers are
hiding," Puntland Trade Minister Abdishamad Yusuf Abwan told
AFP.
The minister could not provide detailed information on
the health situation of the two women, a Spanish doctor and
an Argentine nurse working for Medecins Sans Frontieres
(Doctors Without Borders).
"We don't know much about them so far but they could be
facing difficult conditions because of long hours of walking
in rough areas," Abwan said.
"It's been more than 24 hours now but no-one can exactly
say what their situation is right now," he added.
The two women were snatched by armed men in the Puntland
port of Bosasso on Wednesday, two days after the release of
a French cameraman who was held hostage for eight days.
Police hunted down the kidnappers and engaged in an
exchange of fire with them on Wednesday, capturing two
suspects.
On Thursday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos urged the authorities of Puntland to ensure that
the two hostages would not be hurt and added that Spain's
ambassador to Kenya was on his way to Somalia.
In recent weeks, foreign media and aid organisations have
increasingly been exposing the trade of smugglers taking
refugees across the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian peninsula.
Hundreds of migrants die each year while attempting the
crossing, either because their rickety boats capsize or as a
result of exhaustion, disease or mistreatment by the
smugglers.
