/ 20 October 2008

Aid worker shot dead in Somalia

A United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) aid worker was shot dead in southern Somalia on the weekend, in the second deadly attack on a UN employee in the last few days, a local UN official and witnesses said on Monday.

A colleague said Muktar Mohamed Mohamoud, who was with Unicef’s water, sanitation and hygiene project, was shot in the head on Sunday in front of a tearoom in Hudur, about 430km south-west of Mogadishu.

”Several men armed with hand guns shot him twice in the head and chest and he died instantly,” the local Unicef officer said.

”He was off duty and was spending time with relatives when he was gunned down.”

Witness Abdullahi Farah Mumin said the gunmen shot him, then opened fire into the air and dispersed the crowd before escaping.

On Friday, a World Food Programme aid worker was killed as he came out of a mosque in the coastal Somali town of Merka.

Aid groups said last week that 24 aid workers — 20 of them Somalis — had been killed so far this year in Somalia, while more than 100 attacks against aid agencies had been reported. — Sapa-AFP