French Journalist Abducted in Northeast Of Somalia

4 hours ago

MOGADISHU (AFP) — An award-winning French journalist was abducted Sunday by unknown kidnappers in Bosasso, northern Somalia, where he was reporting on illegal immigrants, government and humanitarian sources said.

"I can tell you that he was abducted this morning at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT). The journalist arrived in Bosasso yesterday (Saturday)," an humanitarian worker told AFP, requesting anonymity.

He said the journalist was a cameraman, Gwenlaoen Le Gouil, who was in Bosasso -- the economic capital of semi-autonomous Puntland -- to do a report on the trafficking of illegal immigrants who risk their lives crossing the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen.

Puntland government officials and elders were pushing to secure the release of the journalist from the abductors who have asked for a ransom of 70,000 dollars.

"We have seen the journalist and he is doing well. He is around the Shimbiro and Mararo area," about 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Bosasso, said one elder, Abdihadir Ibrahim Haji.

"There are efforts under way to release the journalist. We hope that he will be released soon. The information we got indicates that he is well and healthy," added Abdulkadir Muhamoud Adne, Bosasso deputy mayor.

"A translator with the journalist, Jama Hussein, has been released and brought information that they are asking for 70,000 dollars as ransom," said Awale Jama, who is working with the mediators.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the government was in contact with the suspected kidnappers.

"As soon as we learned about it we alerted our services and contacted those who seem to be the kidnappers," Kouchner said in a French television interview.

"We are nevertheless totally mobilised to receive more information and follow developments in this situation so that our countryman can be freed as quickly as possible."

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed "shock and alarm" at the latest abduction.

"This kidnapping is all the more alarming since it happened in a lawless country in which eight journalists have been killed since the start of the year, making it the world's most dangerous area for journalists after Iraq," RSF said in a statement.

"Even though Puntland has been relatively peaceful for several years, it is no longer the case since the upsurge of war between the Islamic courts and Ethiopian troops, supporting Somalia's transitional federal government," it added.

Insecurity has dramatically surged in Somalia, mainly in the capital Mogadishu, since Ethiopian troops arrived late last year and helped to knock off Islamist militants who had briefly ruled south and central region.

Le Gouil was co-winner this year of the French journalism Albert Londres prize for a video report on the assassination of 17 humanitarian workers in Sri Lanka.

Bosasso is the port city situated across from Yemen and has become the embarcation point for the trafficking of illegal immigrants seeking to escape the troubled Horn of Africa. The mafia-style operation generates some three million dollars each year, according to the Danish Refugee Council, a charity that operates in the region.

On November 21, 64 would-be immigrants drowned off the shores of Yemen when their boat capsized.

Journalists have frequently been subjected to verbal and physical threats in Bosasso, humanitarian organisations in Somalia and Kenya have said.

In May, militiamen captured a Kenyan and Irish national working for CARE International in the same region.

Puntland, which declared its semi-autonomous status in 1998, is relatively peaceful compared to Somalia proper.

Violence has defied numerous initiatives aimed at restoring peace and stability in Somalia since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.