Thursday, September 25, 2008
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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Two aid workers kidnapped this week in the east of Ethiopia, and currently being held in Somalia, are a doctor from Japan and a nurse from the Netherlands, a diplomat said Thursday.
The pair -- both employees of French medical charity Medicins du Monde (Doctors of the World) -- were seized from Fadhigaradle village as they were visiting drought-stricken areas Monday.
"The two abducted aid workers are a Japanese woman who is a doctor and a Dutch nurse," the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Armed Somali gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings in recent months, often targeting either foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.
Somalia has been torn by 17 years of almost uninterrupted civil conflict since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre.
Source: AFP, Sept 25, 2008