Critically wounded UN officer dies

2008-07-07 10:07

Mogadishu - Unknown gunmen shot dead the head of the United Nations' Development Programme as he left a mosque near his home in the Somali capital Mogadishu, said witnesses on Monday.

Osman Ali Ahmed was attacked on Sunday evening in Bula Hubey, south Mogadishu. He later died of his injuries in an African Union peacekeepers' hospital.

"As we came out from the mosque after prayers, three men armed with pistols began simultaneously firing at Ahmed's head and body," Isse Dirie, a witness, said.

One of Ahmed's companions was also injured in the attack.

Aid workers had been increasingly targeted for attacks and abduction since the man believed to be al-Qaeda's top operative in Somalia, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed on May 01 in a United States airstrike.

Aid workers held captive

The head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR's Mogadishu programme was recently kidnapped and was still being held.

Several other aid workers had been held captive for months, and the World Food Programme had seen three of its drivers slain this year.

Ayro was the leader of Islamic militant group al-Shabaab, the armed wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Al-Shabaab said it would target foreign troops and workers to avenge the deadly airstrike.

Militants had been waging a guerrilla war against government troops since the UIC was ousted from power at the beginning of 2007 with Ethiopian assistance.

The interim government had been unable to achieve stability in the Horn of Africa country, which had been plagued by chaos and civil war since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

A peace deal was agreed between moderate Islamists and the government in early June, but al-Shabaab had not signed the agreement and had vowed to keep fighting until Ethiopian troops leave Somalia.

Sapa-dpa

- SAPA