Four journalists were abducted on Wednesday in the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland. The abduction took place in the port city of Bosasso, from where several foreigners have been abducted over the past year. The journalists were reported to have been investigating the spate of piracy incidents in Somali waters.
There was some confusion over the nationalities of those taken, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "We have reports saying that two foreign journalists were kidnapped with two local journalists. The two foreigners are British and Spanish," Abdulkebir Musa, Puntland's assistant minister for seaports, told AFP. "It happened at around 11:00 am local time... No one so far has claimed this kidnapping. We haven't had any sign from the driver or the car." [Link]
"I think both the journalists are British but we shall investigate ... we are sending police to free them," Puntland's police spokesman Abshir Said Jama told Reuters. A Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman in Madrid said one of the kidnapped journalists was Spanish photographer Jose Cendon. The spokesman did not say who Cendon worked for. [Link]
Somalia has been immersed in civil conflict for the last 17 years. The government is fighting a two-year-old Islamist insurgency while the chaos has fuelled piracy in Somalia's waters, bringing foreign warships rushing to the area. It is one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters. Two freelancers, an Australian and a Canadian, are still being held after being abducted in the capital Mogadishu in August.
