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UN staff escape Somalia ambush
08/04/2008 21:16 - (SA)
Nairobi - Two staff members of the UN refugee agency narrowly escaped an ambush on their vehicle by armed militiamen in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Puntland, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The vehicle was carrying a foreign aid worker and a local driver, both employed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and was ambushed on Sunday in the town of Garowe.
"More than 20 bullet holes were counted in the UNHCR vehicle," the statement said, adding that the pair escaped unharmed.
The police escort later arrested four suspects and recovered assault rifles, it said. One policeman was wounded in the leg during an exchange of fire with the militiamen.
"The security situation in Somalia's Puntland region has been deteriorating for the past few months, making the delivery of assistance to vulnerable people increasingly difficult," the UNCHR said.
Two aid workers and a journalist were abducted late last year and a German aid worker was briefly held in February in a region disputed by Puntland and the neighbouring breakaway region of Somaliland.
Two other aid workers - a Kenyan and a Briton - employed by an India-based organisation and contracted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation are currently held by gunmen in southern Somalia.
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