afrol News, 26 March - Kenyan officials have confirmed that a Somali militia has abducted four education officers and their driver near the common frontier, soon after crossing into Somalia on Wednesday.

The statement from police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said today that the five were on an official visit to the Kenyan border town of Mandera, when their vehicle was attacked by heavily armed Somali militia.

"The five had crossed the border from Mandera town to go to the border village of Bula Hawa inside Somalia for shopping," Mr Kiraithe said in a statement.

He said the police had sent two prominent locals from the Kenyan town of Mandera to negotiate the release of the education ministry employees.

"Kenya Police wishes to assure the relatives, friends and colleagues of the abducted officers that everything possible is being done to secure their release," he told reporters.

However, Somalia’s Bulo Hawo district commissioner Ahmad Muhammad Burkus said the Kenyans had been found moving suspiciously around the local police station, saying they would be charged with being in the country without proper documentation.

"To us, they are suspicious looking and had intention to spy," he said.

The Al-Shabaab group which controls the Somali border town of Bulo Hawo has confirmed that they were holding the five Kenyan nationals. Al-Shabaab, a pro-al-Qaeda group, denied the abduction, saying the five officials were arrested for crossing the border with no papers.

The militia which is battling the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers overran the provincial town of Baidoa, the former seat of parliament, earlier this year to tighten its grip on large swathes of the south.

Abductions are rife in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since clan-based militias overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other. Random kidnappings rose in the country with foreigners often targeted for ransoms on land and off Somalia's lawless waters.

Last week, four UN workers were set free hours after they were abducted by an armed group in Wajid, Bakool region. The Al-Shabaab administration that controls the area, had however denied that they were behind the kidnapping.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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