Up to 60 Somali intelligence officers stormed a UN compound in Mogadishu today and seized the World Food Programme's local chief of operations at gunpoint, prompting WFP to stop aid distribution.
Riding in two "technicals" - pickup trucks mounted with heavy guns - armed security officers forced their way into UN offices before taking the Somali head of WFP operations to a cell at intelligence headquarters.
A police spokesman confirmed Idris Osman's detention but declined to say why he had been taken. Another government officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said the order to arrest him came from the head of the national security service.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the arrest as a flagrant violation of UN immunity and called for Mr Osman's immediate and unconditional release.
"The Secretary-General reminds the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia of its obligation to protect all United Nations staff members and property," a statement said. WFP said it had received no explanation why Osman had been taken away.
In a statement the food agency said Somalia's national security services had violated international law by storming the compound, close to Mogadishu's airport.
"In the light of Mr Osman's detention and in view of WFP's duty to safeguard its staff, WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions," it said.
That halts the agency's first distribution of food since June in Mogadishu, which aimed to help 75,000 people.