Abducted UN employee freed

A UN employee who was abducted in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week was freed on Wednesday, the UN announced in a statement.

The Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia welcomed the release of Muhammad Farah Omar, who works for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

It said he was set free "when factional fighting broke out in north Mogadishu near the building where he was being held, close to the Lafweyne Hotel".

"His captors fled and Mr Omar was freed along with five other Somalis who had been abducted and held there," the statement said. "Mr Omar was taken for safekeeping to the UN compound, then checked by a UN medical officer and returned to his family."

Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator said "this appalling wave of criminal abductions" was not just affecting UN staff. "There are reports that many more ordinary Somalis have also been kidnapped, including children," the statement quoted him as saying.

Omar was the fourth UN staff member to be abducted this year.

Gaylard called upon community leaders, religious figures, politicians, faction leaders and the people of Mogadishu to work together to stop the pattern of abductions. He said the abductions were hampering UN humanitarian operations aimed at helping the local community.