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A national officer working for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Mogadishu was kidnapped by gunmen in the south of the city on Thursday, a UNICEF spokesman told IRIN on Friday.
The spokesman added, however, that UNICEF lacked further information and the "biggest concern is for the safety and wellbeing" of the staff member.
The man Ahmad Ma'alin Muhammad, better known as 'Dishapilin', was walking from his house in Medina, southwest Mogadishu, towards his office on Thursday morning "when four men in a Land Rover Defender kidnapped him", a source in Mogadishu told IRIN. According to the source, two of the kidnappers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles. It is unclear why Ahmad was kidnapped, where he is being held and by whom. "He is definitely somewhere in south Mogadishu," a humanitarian source in Mogadishu told IRIN.
Meanwhile, the Mogadishu police chief, Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdid, told IRIN that police were investigating and "actively looking for Dishapilin and his captors". Qeybdid said the kidnapping was the work of "people who want to create the impression of insecurity" in the city.
"It is no accident that every time a team of foreigners is visiting Mogadishu something like this happens," he said. He expressed confidence that the police would be able to find where Ahmed is being held, and bring about his release.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
