Foreigner Kidnapped in Central Somalia

A foreigner has been kidnapped in a semi-autonomous province of central Somalia, a local official said Saturday.

"We have reports that a foreigner has been abducted from Galmudug," security official Ali Abdulrahman said, adding that he had been on the airport road near the town of Galkayo and was believed to be in the employ of the local government.

"He was in a car when two pickup trucks full of gunmen stopped the vehicle and took him away," Abdulrahman said, adding: "He was a white man."

Three employees of the Danish Demining Group, an American, a Dane and a Somali, were kidnapped near the Galkayo airport in October. The Somali was later freed.

The town, lying between Galmudug and another self-proclaimed semi-autonomous province, Puntland, was the scene of violent clashes between rival clans and political groups in September.

Somalia has been without an effective government for two decades.

In September, Galmudug and Puntland signed a roadmap aimed at rebuilding the nation with Somalia's transitional government in Mogadishu.

The two territories are both opposed to the Islamist Shebab rebels fighting the central government who control much of the south of the Horn of Africa country.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers, where three regions -- including parts of Mogadishu -- have been declared a famine zone by the U.N.

Despite aid efforts, up to 250,000 people face starvation in the famine zones, while some four million Somalis are in urgent need of aid across the Horn of Africa country, according to the U.N.