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A UN national project staff member working for the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation's Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has been abducted, the UN has confirmed.
Sonya Green, the spokeswoman for the office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said the employee, Abdiqadir Muhammad Abikar, had been abducted on Monday.
He was taken by gunmen at around 08:30 local time while walking to his office in the Medina district of southwestern Mogadishu, a local journalist told IRIN.
Abikar, a former lecturer at the college of agriculture of the Somali National University, is the FSAU's officer-in-charge in Mogadishu, said Green.
"The UN is working to secure the unconditional release of Mr Abikar" Green told IRIN on Tuesday.
It is unclear why Abikar was abducted, where he is being held and by whom. "There has been no contact with the abductors," Green said.
Abikar is the third UN staff member to be abducted in Mogadishu since the beginning of this year. Ahmad Ma'alin Muhammad, better known as Dishapilin, of the UN Children's Programme was abducted by gunmen in Medina district on 28 February and released after four days later. Prof Muhammad Ali Abukar of UN Development Programme was abducted on 28 April in the same area, and eventually released on 25 May.
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
