A Bad Start to 2009 - Aid Worker Killed Yesterday in Somalia

by Michael Bear · 2009-01-07 11:05:00 UTC
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So far, not the best of beginnings for 2009.  Patronus Analytical reports that a World Food Program (WFP) worker was killed yesterday in Somalia.  According to the statement released by the WFP:

"Three masked gunmen shot and killed 44-year-old Somali national Ibrahim Hussein Duale, while he was monitoring school feeding in a WFP-supported school in Yubsan village six kilometres from the Gedo region capital of Garbahare. Witnesses say the gunmen approached him while he was seated, ordered him to stand up and then shot him."

Duale leaves behind a wife and five children. Our thoughts and prayers are with Duale's family and colleagues.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) reports that four humanitarian staff - one with WFP, the other three with NGOs -  were kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on January 2nd.

(It also appears that two NGO staff abducted in a separate incident in southern Afghanistan on January 1st were subsequently rescued.)

These incidents continue the trends from last year, when Somalia and Afghanistan were the two most dangerous countries for aid workers.  For more information on attacks against aid workers, see here.

[Photo of Ibrahim Hussein Duale from www.wfp.org]

Michael Bear
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