MOGADISHU, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen shot dead a local aid worker overnight in the southern Somali port town of Marka, hours after two foreign relief workers were abducted in southern Somalia, local media said.
Omar Sharif who worked for an international humanitarian agency, Care International, was gunned down near his home by unidentified men, local Shabelle Radio reported Monday.
It was not immediately clear the position of the aid worker or the motive behind his killing.
Local Islamist authorities said they were investigating the killing of the humanitarian worker and would apprehend the perpetrators to face justice, the station quoted an unnamed official in Marka, the capital of Lower Shabelle province, as saying.
Two European aid workers, believed to be Dutch and Belgian nationals working for the Belgian arm of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), were abducted Monday by gunmen in the Bakool region as they were travelling to Hudur, the provincial capital of the region.
Efforts by local community leaders and Islamist authorities are reportedly under way to secure the release of the aid workers, who were among a few foreign relief workers still operating in south-central Somalia where most expatriates withdrew after a spike in violence against local and international humanitarian staff.
According to the UN, more than one third of the war-torn East African nation's population face humanitarian catastrophe as violence, drought and famine has made the country dependant on international aid.
Source: Xinhua, April 20, 2009