AFP
Monday, January 23, 2012
Pirates are behind the kidnapping of a foreign hostage in central
Somalia, a local official said Sunday, with witnesses reporting he had
been whisked off to an inaccessible jungle base.Gunmen snatched
the man on Saturday on the airport road in Galkayo, a town near the
border between the state of Galmudug and another self-proclaimed
semi-autonomous province, Puntland, witnesses and officials said.
The victim's identity remains uncertain, while local authorities said he might have dual German and US nationality.
Three
employees of the Danish Demining Group, an American, a Dane and a
Somali, were kidnapped near Galkayo airport in October. The town was the
scene of violent clashes between rival clans and political groups in
September.
"We have learned that the kidnapping of the foreigner
was carried out by pirates," said Abshir Dini Awale, an official in the
Galmudug state cabinet, adding that people who provided him with
security had helped in the abduction.
"We have sent security
forces to trace them and they are still following them. We don't know
how things will be in the end," Awale added.
However, witnesses
near the port of Hobyo, a notorious pirate den to the east of Galkayo,
said security forces gave up the chase after the pirates took the
hostage to a jungle base near the coast.
"There are around 50
heavily armed security forces who tried to stop the pirates after
following them yesterday, but now the security forces have stopped
tracing because the kidnappers entered the base of the pirates," said
one witness, elder Muhidin Adan.
"The pirates have reached Hobyo now. I don't think they could be followed anymore."
Another
witness, Ali Mohamed, agreed, saying: "Now it will be very difficult to
get hold of them, they have crossed the line and no one can follow them
into the jungles."
Of the three people seized in October, only
the Somali has been freed. Elders in the region said in November that
the two remaining hostages were reportedly being held for ransom in
Hobyo district.
Somalia has been without an effective government for two decades.
It
is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers, where
three regions -- including parts of Mogadishu -- have been declared a
famine zone by the United Nations.