British and Kenyan UN workers kidnapped in Somalia (Roundup)

Apr 1, 2008, 15:54 GMT

Mogadishu/Nairobi - Unidentified armed men kidnapped two foreign employees of the United Nations in lawless Somalia Tuesday, the world body said, adding that local elders were attempting to secure their release.

The attack in Somalia's southern region between Saakow and Buale saw the two employees wounded, local Shabelle news agency reported but the UN said there was 'no information to suggest that any serious injury was sustained by either man.'

'Latest information suggests they are being held around the town of Jilib, and that clan elders and community leaders who do not condone such abductions are putting pressure on the perpetrators to release the men,' the UN said in a statement.

The foreigners, who were contracted by the UN and work for Genesys International Corporation of Bangalore, India, are British and Kenyan nationals.

Shabelle said the attackers took the UN workers' car after they opened fire on it.

Heavily-armed warlords rule much of anarchic Somalia, despite the presence of a weak transitional government, and few foreigners live in the Horn of Africa country.

Three workers from the French charity MSF were killed in an explosion earlier this year, which prompted the agency to withdraw all its staff in February.