voa标准英语2008年-Somali Police Search for Kidnapped Foreign Jour
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Police in Puntland, the semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia, are searching for journalists who were kidnapped in the port city of Boosaaso. As Derek Kilner reports from VOA's East Africa bureau in Nairobi, two European journalists, along with two Somalis, were abducted1 on Wednesday, after reporting on piracy2 in the area.A British reporter and a Spanish photographer were abducted by unidentified gunmen as they left the International Village hotel in Boosaaso, for their airport on Wednesday. The National Union of Somali Journalists identified the men as Colin Freeman of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, and photojournalist Jose Cendon, as well as two Somali journalists who were acting3 as fixer and translator.
The journalists had been in Somalia for the past week, reporting on the activities of pirates in the area and were preparing to leave the country.
Puntland's presidential media advisor4, Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, told VOA that the journalists were traveling without armed security guards.
He said he had told the Somali fixers before the journalists arrived that it would be difficult to guarantee the journalists' safety without additional security. They had obtained security guards but had let them go before traveling to the airport. He said the police and other security services are working hard to locate the journalists and secure their release.
Foreign journalists and aid workers have been prominent targets for kidnappers5 in Somalia, who are generally looking for ransom6 payments. Over a dozen foreigners have been abducted in Somalia this year, a particularly high figure given that the number of foreigners operating in the country has steadily7 declined over the past two years. Earlier this month, two Italian nuns8 were kidnapped from a town on the border between Somalia and Kenya.
Puntland had long escaped much of the violence that has plagued southern and central Somalia, but security has deteriorated9 in the past year. Six people were killed in twin suicide bombings in Bosasso in October.
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| The hijacked10 Saudi-owned oil tanker11 MV Sirius Star is at anchor off the coast of Somalia, 19 Nov 2008 |
Meanwhile over 200 crew members - most of them foreigners - are being held on hijacked ships off the coast of Somalia. The seized vessels12 include a Saudi Arabian tanker carrying over $100 million worth of oil, and a Ukrainian ship carrying over 30 military tanks.
Security in Somalia has steadily declined since the latest insurgency13, pitting Islamist rebels against the struggling, internationally-backed transitional government, and its Ethiopian allies, began in January 2007.
On Wednesday, the transitional government signed an agreement to share power with a moderate Islamist faction14, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. But the more radical15 al-Shabab faction has rejected the deal and vowed16 to continue fighting.
