Sunday, July 27, 2008
Osmail Moalim Ahmed was shot five times by assailants in the southern Somali town of Dinsor, in the latest attack against aid workers in the war-stricken country that is facing an acute food shortage.
"He was shot five times on the chest and they left him for dead," a UN official in Dinsor told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He was only giving humanitatian assistance. We don't know why they targeted him."
Local resident Ali Hussein Abdi said: "They stopped him before opening fire on him. They also took his car."
Nineteen aid workers have been killed in Somalia so far this year and 13 others have been abducted, the United Nations has said.
At least 2.6 million Somalis face hunger due to acute food shortfalls spurred by prolonged drought, insecurity and high inflation. UN famine monitors warn the figure could hit 3.5 million by the end of the year.
Aid groups have scaled down operations in Somalia owing to growing insecurity largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces in early 2007.
Source: AFP, July 27, 2008