Wednesday, November 26, 2008
By Abdiqani Hassan
Somalia has been immersed in civil conflict for the last 17 years. The government is fighting a two-year-old Islamist insurgency while the chaos has fuelled piracy in Somalia's waters, bringing foreign warships rushing to the area.
It is one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters.
"I think both the journalists are British but we shall investigate
... we are sending police to free them," Puntland's police spokesman
Abshir Said Jama told Reuters.
Two freelancers, an Australian and a Canadian, are still being held after being seized in the capital Mogadishu in August. Foreign aid workers have also been increasingly targeted this year, with a string of assassinations and kidnappings.
Foreign journalists generally stay out of Somalia, leaving reporting on the ground to local journalists. But a few do still go in, usually hiring local militia to protect them.
In London, a Foreign Office spokesman could not confirm that Britons were involved in the kidnapping in Puntland: "We are checking these reports, but have no confirmation as yet."
Kidnappers in Somalia are generally seeking ransom payments and seldom harm their hostages.
Islamist insurgents are facing off against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies in the south, but Puntland in the north runs its affairs with relative autonomy.
Gangs flourish there, however, and Puntland has become a major base for piracy.
VOW TO RESCUE SHIP
Somali security forces vowed on Wednesday to storm a hijacked Yemeni ship unless the pirates holding it free it without ransom. A Saudi supertanker seized on November 15 and still held was the biggest ship ever hijacked.
In the latest attack on humanitarian workers in Somalia, unidentified gunmen killed a local doctor working at Mogadishu's SOS hospital on Wednesday.
"Abukar Baazi died after they opened fire on his car as it was heading towards the hospital," the hospital's chief doctor, Abdullahi Hussein, told Reuters.
"They killed him and injured his driver. We are beside his dead body and calling his family. We are shocked and do not know what to do."
Somali government officials blame Islamist rebels for such attacks. But insurgent leaders accuse the government of staging assassinations to blacken their name and try to provoke an international intervention.
Representatives for the government and the moderate wing of an Islamist-led opposition movement committed on Wednesday to power-sharing and an expansion of parliament.
In the latest round of U.N.-brokered talks in Djibouti, which are rejected by the Islamist insurgents, the parties agreed to seek a two-year extension of the government's mandate. It expires next year.
Parliament would be enlarged by 200 seats, to be filled by moderates from the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. An extra 75 seats will be set aside for members of civil society. The legislature has 275 members now.
Always upbeat, U.N. envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah hailed the agreement in Djibouti as a major sign of progress.
"These are important steps to create sustainable peace in Somalia and demonstrate the parties' commitment," he said.
"We hope that the concerted efforts made here and the momentum gained in these last few days continue so that the New Year sees Somali leaders working together, wholeheartedly."
Aid agencies increasingly despair as to how to help in Somalia, where more than one million people are internal refugees and more than three million need emergency aid.
SOURCE: Reuters, Wednesday, November 26, 2008