UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid tribute to UN staff seized in Mogadishu in a special message on a day of solidarity with detained staff members. He said the day fell when “sadly, colleagues of ours in Somalia are missing amid deadly hostilities and may have been detained”. The disappearance of a loved one was devastating to family members, who had to cope with both the pain of loss, and of uncertainty, Annan said. He appealed to UN member states to meet their obligations to improve the security of UN staff everywhere. “Dangers on the ground remain real and constant, because some governments are unable to maintain law and order and because, in some places, United Nations staff are subjected to deliberate and targeted aggression.”
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