The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that one of the two aid workers kidnapped in Somalia this week is not Irish as was reported in some sections of the media yesterday.
The man, who is thought to be a Ugandan by birth with a British passport, was kidnapped along with a Kenyan colleague by gunmen in the Puntland region of northern Somalia.
The two men were hired as surveyors by aid agency CARE International one week ago to assist in the construction of two jetties in the areas of Hafun and Garaad.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs told ireland.comthat he believed the mistake may have arisen from the fact that the man has a next of kin from Northern Ireland on his passport.
The two men are understood to be in good health and their abductors are negotiating with local elders to free them, a source close to the captors told Reuters news agency today.
The report said the two men were being held near where they were seized, some 75 miles (120 km) south of Bossasso.
"The hostages are fine and healthy. We have provided them with water and food, they have no problem," the source told Reuters by telephone.
"Our clan elders have communicated with us and we have started dialogue with them. They have told the governor of Bari province to wait for word from them."
One maritime official says the two may have been taken hostage by local fishermen for use as a bargaining chip in a dispute with the authorities over fishing permits.
A senior UN official in Mogadishu for talks with the interim government said he would travel to Puntland in the north to appeal in person for the release of the hostages.
"They have to release them unconditionally," Francois Fall, the UN special envoy for Somalia, told reporters. Puntland runs itself independently from the rest of Somalia and has been more peaceful than most areas in recent years. But the whole country is dangerous for aid workers.
In the self-declared independent enclave of Somaliland, two men were recently sentenced to death for their role in the murders of an Italian, two Britons and a Kenyan between 2003-2004. Authorities generally blame militant Islamists for attacks on foreigners.