Skip to main content

Two French Security Advisors Seized in Somalia





By VOA News
14 July 2009

Mogadishu's Sahafi Hotel, 14 Jul 2009
Mogadishu's Sahafi Hotel, 14 Jul 2009
Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped two French security advisors from a hotel in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

Witnesses say at least 10 men stormed the Sahafi Hotel Tuesday, and grabbed the two foreigners from their rooms.

The kidnapped men had registered at the hotel as journalists. But the French foreign ministry says they were on an official mission to help the Somali government with security matters.

The ministry says all appropriate French agencies have been mobilized to help find the two.

No one has claimed responsibility for the abductions. Several witnesses say some of the gunmen were wearing government uniforms.







Sources in Mogadishu tell VOA the kidnapped men were taken into a part of the capital controlled by the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab is the most powerful of several Islamist groups trying to topple the Somali government.

The government recently appealed for foreign assistance to help fight the insurgent groups.

The Paris-based media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, said it hoped for the men's quick release but expressed shock that they had been posing as journalists.

The group said being a journalist is not a cover, it is a profession. It said their behavior endangers journalists in a region where reporting is already very dangerous.

Somalia is chaotic after 18 years of internal strife, and foreigners are frequent kidnap targets.

Kidnap victims usually are released unharmed, but in many cases only after a ransom is paid.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...
Post a Comment
Read more

World Bank raises China growth forecasts

The World Bank boosted its growth forecast for China and said rising inflation should level off but warned Beijing needs to make the economy less reliant on trade to sustain its expansion. In a quarterly update released Wednesday, the bank said China's politically contentious trade surplus is likely to swell further in 2011, though it cautioned that weak global demand means Beijing shouldn't rely so heavily on exports. The bank raised its 2010 growth outlook from 9.5 percent to 10 percent and its growth outlook for next year from 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent. Growth eased in the third quarter to 9.6 percent from 10.3 percent the previous quarter as Beijing tried to steer it to a more manageable level. "Growth is likely to moderate somewhat more in 2011 and the medium term to a still robust pace," the bank said. Despite a largely upbeat outlook, the bank said Beijing needs to do more to boost domestic demand and cut reliance on exports and investment. Comm...
Post a Comment
Read more