Militiamen in north-eastern Somalia on Wednesday kidnapped two foreign female aid workers, sparking a heavy exchange of fire with the chasing local police, local officials said.
"Two foreign female MSF workers were kidnapped by armed men in central Bosasso. Policemen are chasing the kidnappers," said Bile Mohamud Qabowsade, an information ministry official from the breakaway state of Puntland. He said two women working with the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) were taken in Puntland's port town of Bosasso.
A foreign ministry official told AFP in Madrid that one of the two was Spanish while an MSF-Spain official confirmed this and told Spain's RNE radio that the other may be a nurse from Argentina, since "both are working for us in this zone".
A Puntland official speaking on condition of anonymity said that the local police opened fire on the kidnappers during the chase. It was not immediately clear whether the attack caused any casualties. On Monday, militiamen released a French cameraman who had been kidnapped in the same region on December 16. Officials said no ransom was paid.
Gwen Le Gouil was in Bosasso to shoot a documentary on the mass smuggling of refugees from Somalia and other war-torn Horn of Africa countries across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen when he was captured on December 16. Hundreds of migrants die each year while attempting the crossing, either because their rickety boats capsize or as a result of exhaustion, disease or mistreatment by the smugglers. In May, gunmen kidnapped two aid workers-a Kenyan and a Briton-employed by CARE International in the same region.
Puntland, which declared its semi-autonomous status in 1998, is relatively peaceful compared to Somalia proper, which has been wracked by violence since former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. But following the French cameraman's release, Puntland officials urged foreigners to plan their trips to the region carefully and the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders also issued a warning.
"This alarming episode shows that this region of Puntland has become a hunting ground for kidnappers, who have made a trade of abduction and piracy," it said in a statement. Doctors Without Borders is one of the few international aid organisations to send international staff to all parts of Somalia, a country which has been torn by civil conflict for more than 16 years.
The capital Mogadishu, south of Bosasso, has been rocked by almost daily violence pitting Ethiopian-backed Somali government troops against islamist insurgents. The fighting has killed hundreds of civilians and forced thousands of others to flee in recent months. Many Mogadishu residents continue to flee to Bosasso and its surroundings, either to seek shelter with relatives, in camps for the displaced or to attempt the perilous boat crossing to the Arabian peninsula.