Unidentified gunmen kidnapped two Western journalists on Saturday near Somalia's capital Mogadishu, residents and a security source said. The pair, believed to be an Australian man and Canadian woman, were apparently seized during a visit to camps for displaced civilians at Elasha, south of the city. “We heard that unknown gunmen abducted two foreign journalists, a white man and a white woman,” Fatuma Ali, a primary school teacher in Elasha, told Reuters by telephone. Mohamed Ajos, head of security at Mogadishu's Shamo Hotel, said the pair had been staying there. “They left us this morning to visit internally displaced camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu,” he said. “Now they are nowhere to be found. They were accompanied by a Somali translator and were to visit parts of Lower Shabelle region.” He named the pair as an Australian called Nigel and a Canadian called Amanda, but had no other details. He said he believed they had been kidnapped. Gun-point abductions are common in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, where Islamist insurgents have been fighting the interim government and its Ethiopian military allies since the start of last year.
