MOGADISHU (AFP) — At least four journalists -- a Briton, a Spaniard and two Somalis -- were kidnapped Wednesday in the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland, officials and witnesses said.
The pair were in the Puntland economic capital of Bosasso to report on the pirates who have been hijacking foreign ships off the Somali coast but there were no immediate details on the identity of their captors.
"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," he added.
Puntland presidential adviser Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade had earlier told AFP that the two abducted foreigners were Spanish and French. However, there was no other confirmation that a French national was abducted.
The Spanish foreign ministry said the Spanish national is photographer Jose Cendon, who is based in Addis Ababa and a contributor to several media, including AFP.
"A police operation is under way. All the exits of Bosasso have been closed and an investigation been launched in an attempt to collect witness accounts on who might have kidnapped them," Musa said.
The version of events given by the assistant minister was confirmed by the manager of the International Village, the hotel where the two foreign journalists were staying.
"They left the hotel maybe around 10:00 am (0700 GMT). They had booked their flights the day before. They told me they were flying to Djibouti," Abdullahi told AFP.
"They were picked up by their fixer and the same security men who had been looking after them," he said.
"Then an airline officer at the airport called me to ask where they were because they didn't show up. This is when I understood they had probably been kidnapped," he said.
The manager of the Dallo airline in Bosasso was contacted by AFP and said the pair had flight reservations but never showed up to board their plane.
"They booked yesterday, they actually came to the office. When we realised they were late, I called the hotel manager to enquire. It was already 12:30 pm (0930 GMT) by then," Mohamed Sheikh said.
An airport source in Djibouti confirmed that the Dallo flight landed and that the two journalists were not on board.
The International Village manager also said that two other foreign journalists had been staying in his hotel recently but had checked out on Wednesday. He was unable to confirm their names or nationalities.
Bosasso is a port rife with armed gangs smuggling everything from arms to migrants across the Gulf of Aden.
Puntland, a self-proclaimed state on Somalia's northeastern tip, is also where the pirates who have been hijacking ships in the Gulf of Aden are based.
The war-wracked Horn of Africa nation was ranked as the world's second-deadliest country for journalists throughout 2007 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
In August, two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian, were kidnapped near the capital Mogadishu and are still being held.
In December 2007, a French cameraman was kidnapped and held for eight days by a local militia.
A German national and his Somali wife were also briefly detained in Puntland in September.
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