Security forces 'tracing' foreigner abducted in Somalia

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Security forces are on the trail of gunmen who kidnapped a foreigner in a semi-autonomous province of central Somalia, a local security official said on Saturday.

"The administration sent dozens of security forces to rescue the hostage and they are tracing him now," Mohamed Jama said. "The man was working as a journalist and he stayed in Galkayo to report the developments in the region."

But another security official, Ali Abdulrahman, said the victim worked for a company that is building a port for the coastal town of Hobyo.

"We are still investigating the incident, but the initial reports indicate that his own security guards are involved in the kidnapping," Jama said.

The gunmen reportedly abducted the victim in Galmudug, a semi-autonomous province of the war-torn country, on the airport road near the town of Galkayo.

"He was in a car when two pickup trucks full of gunmen stopped the vehicle and took him away," said an eyewitness, Ali Abdul Kadir. "He was a white man."

Three employees of the Danish Demining Group, an American, a Dane and a Somali, were kidnapped near Galkayo airport in October.

Only the Somali has been freed so far, and elders in the region said in November that the other two were reportedly being held for ransom in the coastal Hobyo district, a notorious pirate den.

Galkayo, lying near the border between Galmudug and another self-proclaimed semi-autonomous province, Puntland, was the scene of violent clashes between rival clans and political groups in September.

In September, Galmudug and Puntland signed a roadmap aimed at rebuilding the nation with Somalia's transitional government in Mogadishu.

The two territories are both opposed to the Islamist Shebab rebels fighting the central government who control much of the south of the Horn of Africa country.

Somalia has been without an effective government for two decades.

It is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers, where three regions -- including parts of Mogadishu -- have been declared a famine zone by the United Nations.

Despite aid efforts, up to 250,000 people face starvation in the famine zones, while some four million Somalis are in urgent need of aid across the Horn of Africa country, according to the UN.