A case study in why Somalia is a mess, and has been for years. “Somali Islamists snatch Danish, Swedish aid workers: UN,” from Agence France-Presse:
MOGADISHU (AFP) – Islamist militants kidnapped a Dane and a Swede working for the United Nations and a Somali aid worker when the fighters seized control of a town Saturday, several sources told AFP.
Local residents and aid workers said the insurgents attacked the town of Hodur, 370 kilometres (235 miles) west of the Somali capital Mogadishu, around 4:30 am (0130 GMT) but then withdrew.
“The two UN mine action workers were taken from the IMC (International Medical Corps) compound. We don’t know their whereabouts and they were taken after Islamists took control of the town,” a UN official told AFP.
First reports said the two foreigners abducted were Swedes, but it later emerged that one was Danish and the other Swedish.
“According to our sources on the ground, they are a Dane and a Swede working for our organisation, carrying out a demining training assignment on behalf of the United Nations,” said Aake Svensson, a spokesman for the Raddningsverket, the Swedish government’s risk assessment and emergency management agency.
A UN security official in Nairobi said: “Local authorities in the zone are negotiating with the kidnappers and calling for their immediate and unconditional release. […]
The latest abductions take the number of humanitarian workers kidnapped recently in this Horn of Africa country to nine: two Swedes, two Italians, one British national, one Kenyan and three Somalis.