Oil worker kidnapped in Somalia

2008-10-08 14:32

Mogadishu - Somali gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped a Pakistani oil worker in the country's breakaway Puntland region, an official said.

"The incident took place in a village near Bossaso. We don't know the identity of the kidnappers and their motive, but it could be part of the growing criminal acts by gangs who are seeking money," a top official in Puntland's mining ministry said on condition of anonymity.

"The man is a Pakistan national," the official added.

The man works for Africa Oil Corporation, a Canadian oil firm prospecting for oil fields in northern Somalia, the official said.

Armed gangs in Puntland elsewhere in Somalia have carried out scores of kidnappings in recent months, often targeting foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.

The self-declared state of Puntland in the north has been largely spared the latest violence but it has been used by pirates taking foreign ships hostage and gangs smuggling goods, arms and people across the Gulf of Aden.

Southern Somalia has been torn by 17 years of almost uninterrupted civil conflict since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre. Numerous UN-backed initiatives have failed to restore stability in the country.

Thousands of civilians have died in the guerrilla war that has pitted invading Ethiopian troops against Islamist insurgents since last year.

- AFP