Gunman Dressed In Police Uniform Kills Two UN Workers
An unidentified gunman shot and killed a British and a French man working for the United Nations at Galkayo airport in north central Somalia.
According to media reports, the two UN workers were attacked by a man dressed in a police uniform while they sat in their car at the airport.
The pair worked as consultants for the UN anti-drugs agency.
The world’s body has spent billions of dollars in Somalia since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. However, the rise of Islamist group al Shabaab has hampered the quest for stability in the war-torn country.
UN and US condemn the killing
The U.N. Special Representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, expressed condemnation of the attack saying it was a “callous” killing. Amid the pressing challenges, the organization remained committed to continuing its vital support to the Somali people as they emerge from decades of conflict.
Jen Psaki, US State Department Spokesperson, said the United States strongly condemns the killing of the two employees of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Puntland, Somalia.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in the attack. – Ms. Psaki
She urged the Somali authorities to fully investigate the crime and to bring the perpetrators to justice without delay.
Al Shabaab Brings Terror In Somalia
Records of terrorism have hunted the African country for many decades.
Last year, Al Shabaab gunmen in the capital Mogadishu used a car bomb to blow a hole in the U.N. compound’s wall. Twenty people, including U.N. staff, were killed in the incident.
In another incident, al Shabaab attacked a U.N. convoy with a remote-controlled bomb earlier this year. The attack killed at least seven Somalis.
Fighting between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Al-Shabaab militants had already uprooted tens of thousands of people in Mogadishu before the current humanitarian crisis began. Ongoing insecurity and drought, as well as famine in parts of southern Somalia, have caused a massive influx of starving adults and children into the city in the past two months.
Al-Shabaab militants are infamous for deliberately blocking the delivery of food assistance in an area of south central Somalia which is under direct or indirect control of al-Shabaab.
The Al-Shabaab militant group has been compared with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan because of its opinions and beliefs.
