MOGADISHU (AFP) — Gunmen raided an airstrip in central Somalia Wednesday and kidnapped four foreign aid workers with the French NGO "Action Contre la Faim" (ACF - Action Against Hunger) and their two pilots.
The kidnappings took place at around midday (0900 GMT) in Dhusa Mareb, an area under Islamist control near the Ethiopian border, as the six were about to take off for Nairobi, ACF said in a statement.
"The kidnappers whisked the four Action Against Hunger workers away in a car as well as the two Kenyan pilots of the plane chartered by the European Commission," the statement said.
Somali sources -- and later the Belgian foreign ministry in Brussels -- said the hostages were two French nationals, a Belgian, a Bulgarian and the two Kenyan pilots.
"They were snatched by gunmen as they were trying to leave the airstrip in Dhusa Mareb," said one local resident who had helped the NGO coordinate their trip.
"The plane's pilots were also taken. The aid workers were three women and a man working for ACF," he added.
Another witness who asked not to be named said that the aid workers' security escort of five or six men was easily over-powered by around 20 heavily-armed gunmen.
Mohamed Abdullahi Moalim, a local elder, said the local authorities had set up checkpoints in a bid to intercept the kidnappers and their hostages.
"The local security forces are trying to trace them but we're not sure in which direction they went," he told AFP. But he later said the security forces had returned to base empty-handed.
European Union Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel condemned the kidnapping in a statement.
"The assistance provided by the Commission and its partners in Somalia is solely aimed at relieving the suffering of people who are in desperate need," he said.
Armed Somali gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings in recent months, often targeting either foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.
Gunmen are still holding a Japanese female doctor and Dutch nurse working for the French-based medical charity Medecins du Monde (MDM), who were abducted inside Ethiopia in September.
Two foreign journalists are also being held by a Somali group.
Dhusa Mareb in an Islamist stronghold run jointly by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and the Shebab group.
The ICU is the movement that briefly took over Mogadishu and large parts of the country in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian troops backing fragile government forces.
The Shebab was then its armed youth wing but when the ICU's top leadership fled the country two years, it grew into a separate movement and has since been waging a deadly guerrilla war against the Somali government and Ethiopia.
The few aid organisations still operating in Somalia have had to reach understandings with Islamist insurgents for protection.
But the Shebab itself is divided over kidnappings, with some factions seeking ransoms and others demanding the hostages' release.
Following such disagreements, the MDM aid workers abducted in September were transferred to Mogadishu by their captors from a Shebab offshoot after crossing the border with Ethiopia near Dhusa Mareb.
Somalia has lacked an effective government and any credible centralised security apparatus since the 1991 ouster of former president Mohamad Siad Barre touched a bloody power struggle.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the latest fighting, with thousands killed in recent months and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.
Aid organisations have warned that one of the world's worst humanitarian crises was unfolding in Somalia and complained that attacks and kidnappings had made their operations virtually impossible to sustain.
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