Gunmen abducted a 32-year-old female US aid worker in northern Somalia along with a Danish and a Somalian colleague as their convoy headed to the airport. The kidnappings come only weeks after four Europeans were seized by suspected Somalian gunmen in neighboring Kenya.
A self-proclaimed Somalian pirate said that pirates had captured the three on Tuesday. The captors would not harm the three, but will want a ransom for their release, he said. The claim could not be independently verified.
The three employees work for the Danish Demining Group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.
“As a first priority, we have been concentrating on the ongoing investigations. We are keeping close contact with the family members, who are deeply concerned, just as we are,” said Ann Mary Olsen, head of the Danish Refugee Council’s international department.
Activities of the Danish Refugee Council, which runs the Danish Demining Group, have been suspended in the area. The group provided no other details and asked media outlets “to respect the need for confidentiality as investigations are ongoing.”
A Nairobi-based security official said the demining group was traveling in a three-car convoy, including one vehicle of armed guards, but that the guards did not resist the kidnapping.
The three are believed to be on their way to a former pirate stronghold on the Somalian coast, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Ahmed Mohamed, a police officer in the Somalian town of Galkayo, said the aid workers had been heading to the airport when they crossed into a southern section of the city that is under clan control. The northern section of Galkayo is under the control of the semiautonomous region of Puntland.
Two Nairobi-based officials said the American woman is 32 and the Danish man is 60.
The woman is a former school teacher, one official said.
Bile Hussein, the self-proclaimed pirate, said the three were abducted with the help of “insiders.” Hussein has provided reliable information about pirate activities in Somalia to The Associated Press in the past.
He said that capturing ships off East Africa is becoming harder — ships are using stronger self-defense measures — so pirates are looking for other ways to earn ransoms.
“They are now on the way to Gan town, and we shall treat them humanely and kindly. Our aim is all about a ransom, not harming them,” Hussein said.
Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Christian Friis Bach told Danish broadcaster DR that the demining group was working to help Somalians.
“That’s why it’s both sad and tragic that they have been struck by this kidnapping, and I hope their strong network and a collected effort also by the foreign ministry can resolve the situation quickly,” he said.
The kidnapping comes only weeks after the seizure of two women working for Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya, as well as the kidnappings of two European tourists from Kenya’s coast — one of whom later died.
Somalian gunmen were suspected in those attacks.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was