2 Aid Workers Kidnapped Near Kenya-Somalia Border

Posted October 13th, 2011 at 10:40 am (UTC-5)
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Gunmen have kidnapped two international aid workers from a huge Somali refugee complex in northern Kenya.

VOA's Somali Service has learned the workers, from the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, were seized Thursday at the Dadaab refugee complex.

An official for the aid group told VOA the kidnap victims work for the group's Spanish branch. Their precise nationality is not known.

The official said the two were seized at gunpoint from Dadaab's recently-opened Ifo 3 camp. He says a driver was wounded during the abduction and is in stable condition.

Kenyan authorities suspect the kidnappers may be Somali and may have tried to take the workers back to Somali territory. Dadaab is located about 100 kilometers from the Somali border.

This would be the third kidnapping of foreigners near the Kenya-Somali border within the past month.

A British tourist and a French woman were recently abducted at Kenyan resorts. Both of those women are being held captive in Somalia.

The Dadaab complex is home to more than 400,000 refugees, many of whom fled ongoing famine conditions and fighting in southern Somalia.