Gunmen kidnap aid workers from Kenya's Dadaab camp near Somalia

Nairobi, 29 Jun - (ANA) - Four foreign aid workers and a Kenyan national have been kidnapped from a refugee camp in Kenya close to the border with Somalia, police say.

A driver was also killed in the ambush on a convoy by gunmen in Dadaab camp, home to more than 450,000 Somalis. The foreign workers were from Norway, Canada, Pakistan and the Philippines, the region's deputy police chief Philip Ndolo told Reuters news agency. Several aid workers have been kidnapped from Dadaab in the last year. Many aid groups have withdrawn from the camp as a result. Mr Ndolo said two vehicles in the convoy had come under attack - and one had managed to get away.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Refugee Council said its secretary general, Elizabeth Rasmussen, was in the convoy that was involved in an "incident", but she was fine. No further details were available, he said. Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, and has been wracked by fighting ever since - a situation that has allowed piracy and lawlessness to flourish. Islamists from the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab control large swathes of the country. (ANA)

FA/ANA/29 June 2012-------------