Mogadishu - Somali gunmen in Mogadishu abducted nine international workers at gunpoint yesterday after invading and ransacking the compound of the Medecins Sans Frontieres medical charity, UN sources and witnesses said.
At UN headquarters in New York, officials had information on only seven of those kidnapped, identifying them as three Britons, one American, a Belgian, an Algerian and a Somali national.
In Mogadishu an official of the group responsible for the raid said the foreigners were abducted to show the war-ravaged Somali capital, scene of the humiliating defeat of a US-backed peace attempt in 1993, was still a dangerous place. The two-hour assault by militiamen of Somali warlord Muse Sudi Yalahow, using heavy machineguns mounted on jeeps, started battles across the city between his men and forces of the fledgling Somali government in which at least seven people were killed, witnesses said.