Mogadishu (dpa) – A gunman shot two foreign aid workers in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday, killing at least one of them instantly, according to police officials. The pair worked for international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders). A member of their security team is believed to have been the shooter, an official, who requested anonymity, told dpa. The suspect was taken into police custody. MSF spokeswoman Maimouna Jallow would only say there had been a security incident in the aid agency's compound. “We confirm that a serious shooting incident has taken place in the MSF compound in Mogadishu,” Jallow said in a statement. “At this point we don't have more information about the scale and the extent of this incident.” The fate of the second worker, who was seriously injured in the shooting, remains unclear. Mogadishu has been seen as safer since militant Islamist group al-Shabaab pulled out most of its forces in August, prompting an influx of foreign aid workers attempting to mitigate the effects of a devastating drought in 2011 and 20 years of ongoing civil war. Despite an end to the daily hail of bullets that characterized the capital in recent years, insecurity remains high amid an insurgent bombing campaign. Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has been battling to topple the internationally backed central government in Mogadishu since early 2007. During this period, aid workers have been regularly targeted for murder and kidnap. In October, two Spanish MSF workers were kidnapped from the Dadaab refugee complex in neighboring Kenya, which hosts more than 400,000 mainly Somali refugees. The incident prompted Nairobi to send a limited military force over the border in an attempt to defeat al-Shabaab – which controls much of southern Somalia – and secure its territory. The two aid workers are believed to be in Afgoye, one of the many areas outside of the capital that still remain in insurgent hands. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/TFHp2 Tags: Aid Workers, Doctors Without Borders, Shabab, Somalia Section: East Africa, Latest News
