Gunmen kill aid worker

2008-07-15 18:13

Nairobi - Gunmen killed a transport agent working for the World Food Programme in Somalia where attacks on aid workers have risen in recent weeks, the agency said on Tuesday.

The man, who was shot in southern Somalia on Sunday, was the fifth WFP-contracted worker to be killed this year in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.

"We condemn these shootings and are very concerned that growing insecurity threatens to sabotage the humanitarian response in Somalia," WFP director for Somalia Peter Goossens said in a statement.

Last week gunmen killed an aid worker and seriously wounded another in separate attacks in the capital Mogadishu.

Some 2.6 million Somalis are in need of food aid due to a severe drought and high food prices.

UN officials have appealed to the Somali government and Islamist militants fighting for control of the country to spare aid workers, many of whom have been killed or kidnapped in recent months.

Aid groups have scaled down operations in Somalia owing to increased insecurity, largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces in early 2007.

- SAPA