UN aid workers freed in Somalia

29/06/2008| IslamWeb

Somali gunmen have freed two UN aid workers from Sweden and Denmark - just hours after seizing them in southern Somalia, UN and Somali officials say.

The aid workers were released without ransom and were safe, a UN security official told Reuters news agency.

They will now be flown to Nairobi - the capital of neighbouring Kenya - the officials say.

The two - who were working for a UN programme to clear landmines - were kidnapped in Somalia's Bakol region.

They were taken from a compound in the town of Hudur, north-west of the capital Mogadishu, by Islamist insurgents, a UN official said earlier.

The UN workers were kidnapped shortly after the town was seized by the insurgents.

A resident said there had been fierce exchanges of gunfire between the insurgents and security forces in Hudur.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Somali soldier in Mogadishu. (AFP)

BBC