| by VOA News Saturday, July 12, 2008 |
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Gunmen in Somalia have shot two aid workers in separate attacks in the latest violence against humanitarian staff in the country. Witnesses say a senior Somali aid worker for the German Charity Bread for the World, Mohamed Kheire, was shot and killed south of the capital, Mogadishu.
In a separate attack, the head of the local aid organization SORDA, Ali Bashi, suffered serious gunshot wounds in an attack south of the capital. He was rushed to a nearby hospital.
In other violence Friday, witnesses say government soldiers patrolling northern Mogadishu killed five people.
Aid workers have become a frequent target in Somalia. On Sunday, attackers shot dead the head of the U.N. Development Program for Somalia, and on Monday, a truck driver for the World Food Program was killed at a checkpoint.
The WFP says the driver was the fourth contract driver killed this year.
Somalia has not had a fully functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Fighting in recent years between Islamist insurgents and the Ethiopian-backed interim government has killed thousands of people and displaced more than one million.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.