CPJ worried about journos

2008-08-26 13:00

Nairobi - A media watchdog on Tuesday urged the Somali government and Islamist militia to ensure the safety of Australian, Canadian and Somali journalists kidnapped in Africa's "most dangerous" nation.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "deeply concerned about the safety of three journalists and their driver who were abducted by an unknown armed group two days ago".

"Somalia continues to be the most dangerous place for local and foreign journalists in Africa," the CPJ's Africa Programme co-ordinator Tom Rhodes said.

"CPJ calls on both the transitional government and the Islamic Courts Union to adhere to their public statements to do everything possible to ensure the safe release of these media workers."

Australian Nigel Brennan and Canadian Amanda Lindhout, who arrived in Somalia on August 20, and their Somali fixer were seized on the road from Mogadishu to Afgoye, where they intended to visit refugee camps.

The CPJ said it had received information that the trio could have been moved to Jowhar, a town 90km north of the capital Mogadishu.

French media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said it was worried about the abduction and called for caution.

"Prudence is required in Somalia, where the situation is complex and journalists and humanitarian aid workers are often abducted by militias acting with very diverse motives," it said in a statement.

A security official at a hotel near the incident, about 25km west of Mogadishu, said the journalists were seized at gunpoint.

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted in Somalia, a country torn apart by civil war since 1991. Most kidnappings include ransom demands.

There has been mounting unrest in Somalia since Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamist militia that had controlled large parts of the Horn of Africa country in 2006.

Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia, which has lacked an effective government since 1991, in late 2006 at the bequest of the embattled transitional administration.

The Islamists have reverted to guerrilla warfare and have been targeting Somali government forces, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers almost daily.

The clashes have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed more than 6 000 people last year alone.

- AFP