| Gunmen kidnapped a German man working for the UN in southern Somalia, a spokesperson for the German Embassy in Nairobi confirmed on Friday. Rolf Helmrich, who reportedly worked for the UN’s Development Programme, was abducted on Thursday morning along with three Somali UN staffers, whom the gunmen freed shortly after taking them hostage. The UN was reportedly negotiating with the regional Somali authorities to rescue Helmrich, whose vehicle was commandeered by the gunmen on a bridge in Kismayo, about 500km south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Abductions of foreign aid workers are not uncommon in Somalia. The gunmen usually try to negotiate ransoms for the return of hostages. But a recent spate of killings in the northern region of Somaliland has alarmed aid agencies. A British couple teaching at a Somaliland school and an Italian aid worker were killed in October. |