Somali gunmen kidnap two people

Gunmen kidnapped a US aid worker and her Danish colleague yesterday in Somalia.

The 60-year-old Danish man and 30-year-old American woman were working for the Danish Demining Group near the northern town of Galkayo when they were seized.

The kidnapping comes just weeks after the abduction of two women working for Médecins Sans Frontières from a refugee camp in neighbouring Kenya, as well as the kidnapping of two European tourists from Kenya's coast. Somali gunmen were suspected of carrying out those attacks.

Kenya has sent 1,600 troops into southern Somalia to attack militants from al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamist group, in response to those kidnappings. It is not clear whether the militants are responsible for the abductions.