Libyan diplomats kidnapped in Mogadishu

05 January, 2008

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somali gunmen on Saturday kidnapped two Libyan diplomats in the capital Mogadishu, a Libyan diplomat and witnesses told AFP, the latest in surge of seizures of foreign nationals in the troubled African state.

The pair, whose diplomatic rank was not immediately disclosed, were kidnapped in the volatile Bakara market area after they left their mission's offices in southern Mogadishu's K-5 area, they said.

"The two diplomats had gone out for shopping when they were snatched," the diplomat told AFP. "Their driver returned and said that men armed with pistols kidnapped them."

Libya and Sudan are the only countries to have kept a continued, albeit intermittent, diplomatic presence in Somalia throughout the civil strife that has engulfed the Horn of African nation since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

"We don't know if the attack was planned," Mogadishu trader Ali Mohamed Abdullahi told AFP.

The diplomats' local driver was also kidnapped but later released, said the Libyan embassy official, requesting anonymity.

The motive of the abduction was not immediately clear, but Somali gunmen have in the past demanded huge ransoms to free their hostages.

In recent weeks foreigners have been kidnapped in the volatile country. On Wednesday, gunmen freed a Spanish doctor and an Argentinian nurse after one week in captivity in Somalia's breakaway republic of Puntland.

Local media reported that their captors had demanded a 250,000-euro (365,000 -dollar) ransom, but the Spanish foreign ministry insisted no money was paid to secure their freedom.

Last month, a French cameraman who was in Puntland to film a documentary on the mass smuggling of refugees from Somalia and other chaotic Horn of Africa countries across the Gulf of Aden, was also freed after being held for more than a week.

Puntland's semi-autonomous government has encouraged foreigners to coordinate their movements in the lawless region with local officials in an effort to ensure their security.

Insecurity in Mogadishu has worsened since early 2007 when Ethiopian army backed Somali government forces to topple an Islamist movement, sparking near-daily attacks that have killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands others.

In May last year, Ethiopia became the second country to re-establish a diplomatic presence in Mogadishu after the ouster of the Islamists. Yemen opened its embassy there in January.

Somalia, a nation of 10 million people, has lacked a functional central authority for the past 16 years and the cycles of bloodletting has defied numerous peace endeavours.

African Union peacekeepers -- comprising Ugandan and Burundi forces -- in the seaside capital have been unable to reign in the violence that has also spawned a dire humanitarian crisis.

Western intelligence warn that Somali could fast become a haven for extremist groups if the world fails to back the feeble government of President President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

But Eritrea, Ethiopia's arch-foe, has warned that foreign interference will exacrbate the chaos in the chaotic Horn of Africa region and beyond and urged the UN Security Council to halt meddling if peace is to be realised.

The Asmara-based Somali opposition has voiced similar sentiments.