Somalia: Two Kenyan Border Guards Abducted As Local Leaders Meet

12 June 2007
Posted to the web 12 June 2007

Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu

The bureaucrats in Baled Hawa Somalia and Mandhera Kenya have convened on Tuesday over two Kenyan border guards who were kidnapped by unknown gunmen between the Kenyan and Somalia frontier on Monday.

Shabelle reporter, Ahmed Salihi, in Baled Hawa southern Somalia closer to the Kenyan border said the meeting occurred in the Baled Hawa Somalia where both officials agreed to urge local tribal elders to try to contact the Somali abductors and negotiate over the release of two Kenyan soldiers now believed to hostages inside Somalia.

Salahi said, "Despite meeting and the agreement, it is not yet clear where exactly the hostages are held or who is holding them."

Kenyan closed its border with Somalia late last year when the Somalia forces backed by Ethiopian military troops and the defeated Union of Islamic Courts fighters combated in southern and central provinces of the country.

Somalia administrators in the Baled Hawa said such incident would harm peace in the province, promising they would do whatever they could to make sure the release of the two soldiers.