/ 24 March 1999

AID WORKER KILLED IN SOMALIA

SOMALI gunmen shot and killed a United States woman working for a church aid organisation in southern Somalia on Saturday, a Kenyan police statement has confirmed.Deena Marie Umbarger of the United Methodist Committee had gone to Kiamboni area of Somalia on a humanitarian mission. She was eating with Adqwani sub-clan elders in a restaurant when an unidentified Somali walked in and shot her in the chest. The security situation in Kiamboni is volatile with various rival militias and Islamic radicals fighting intermittently for control of the Juba river valley.The reason for the killing is not yet known.