UN worker abducted in Somalia
2006-03-01 20:18
Mogadishu - A foreign United Nations worker was abducted on Wednesday in southern Somalia and efforts are under way to secure his release, officials said.
Robert McCarthy, an international staffer with the UN Children's Fund (Unicef), was seized on the outskirts of Afmadow in the volatile southern region of Lower Juba, they said.
"All necessary contacts have been made with the traditional elders, security officials and local politicians," said Ahmed Ashi, a Somali member of parliament from Lower Juba, which is in the grip of an acute food shortage.
"We expect the immediate, unconditional and safe release of the UN aid worker... Abductions are not acceptable in the region and will not be tolerated," he told AFP.
A UN statement released in Nairobi said the world body was "in communication with the transitional federal government and the local authorities in the region that are taking steps to secure Mr McCarthys release".
Neither the UN nor Somali officials gave McCarthy's nationality.
A UN security officer from Germany, Rolf Helmrich, was abducted in the same region in February 2004 but was released after negotiations between the abductors and militia commanders of the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA) which rules the area.
Kidnapping of aid workers is common in strife-torn Somalia, a Horn of Africa country governed by unruly militiamen, which has been without a functioning government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
A transitional government formed in October 2004 has failed to exert control across the country, home to 10 million people.