- Two foreign journalists have been abducted by unknown men from a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu today, local reports have said.
Reports said about 10 gunmen who pretended to be government security guards stormed into the hotel and took the two French journalists in the southern part of the capital. Mogadishu has been under siege in recent months, as the country’s radical Islamist group, stepped up its fight to reclaim the larger part of capital.
“Gunmen wearing Somali police uniforms turned up at the guest house, seized the two reporters and took them in a vehicle towards a part of the city run by insurgents,” witnesses said.
Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists, both local and foreign, to operate and several have been kidnapped or killed.
Fighting in Somalia since Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamic Courts Union in late 2006 has killed at least 18,000 and send hundreds of thousands more fleeing from their homes.
The offensive got worse following the swearing in of the new President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in January, and departure of the Ethiopian troops in the Horn of Africa state early this year.
Some of the 4,300 African Union peacekeepers helped push back the insurgents but without much success.
The radical rebel group al-Shabab and its allies have been trying to topple the fragile UN-backed interim government, led by moderate Islamist President.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
front page
| news
| countries
| archive
| currencies
| news alerts login
| about afrol News
| contact
| advertise
| español