No one knows the whereabouts of Mr. Ali, but witnesses said that the militia blindfolded him before they shoved him into their car, which sped away.
Mr. Hussein, physically challenged, was recovered from the office, badly bleeding. He was taken to Madina hospital, where doctors are performing a life-saving operation on him.
A volunteer staffer was also injured in the attack, which happened at dusk.
Thought to be Islamist Insurgents, the heavily armed militia men stormed the offices of the
IEDSOM was one of the last NGOs working in the Somali capital, after a slew of assassinations and kidnappings that targeted aid workers.
The incident came just as another group of militia attacked and briefly seized an IEDSOM warehouse, where food for the disabled was stored. The men looted the warehouse, leaving little in the store.
As a result, IEDSOM was unable to perform its regular feeding program for the disabled evacuees near the capital. Nearly one million internally displaced people (IDPs) are crammed into makeshift camps near the southern outskirts of the capital.
Sources tell Hiiraan Online that Islamist militia had in the past threatened IEDSOM officers, particularly Mr. Ali, if his organization didn’t provide them with food and water.
In the last few years, aid workers have been a primary target for all kinds of militia, as violence spiked in
© 2008 Hiiraan Online