Somali govt hunting for abducted reporters

The Somali government said Sunday that a hunt has been started for Australian, Canadian and Somali journalists abducted near the dangerous capital of Mogadishu on Sunday.

A government spokesman said the whereabouts of the trio was not immediately known, but the family of the Somali fixer for the foreign freelance reporters said they believed a ransom would be demanded.

"We are getting information that they are still in captivity but their whereabouts are unknown," government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon told AFP.

"The ministry of information is closely following their situation," he added.

The Australian was believed to be Nigel Brennan and his family has expressed concern. Canadian media identified the other missing reporter as Amanda Lindhout.

The foreigners and their Somali fixer were seized on the road from Mogadishu to Afgoye, where they intended to visit refugee camps.

"We don't have any concrete informations on the kidnappers or where they have been taken but we are trying to find out how they are," said Mohamed Elmi, father of Somali journalist.

"Some of the information we are getting so far indicates that the journalists were kidnapped by freelance militias who want a ransom," the father added.

The National Union of Somali Journalists was helping with the efforts, said its secretary general Omar Faruk Osman.

In Sydney, Brennan's family said they were "deeply concerned" that he may be one of the two abducted reporters and confirmed he was missing.

The Canadian government said it was in contact with authorities in Somalia but did not confirm the identity of the reporter involved.

A security official at a hotel near the incident, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Mogadishu, said the journalists were seized at gunpoint.

Journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted in Somalia, a country torn apart by civil war since 1991. Most kidnappings include ransom demands.

There has been mounting unrest in Somalia since Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamist militia that had controlled large parts of the Horn of Africa country in 2006.

On Saturday, the UN's special representative to Somalia condemned three days of clashes in the port of Kismayo this week that left 40 people dead, many of them civilians.

The Islamists seized control of the key southern port during the fighting.

Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia, which has lacked an effective government since 1991, in late 2006 at the bequest of the embattled transitional administration.

The Islamists have reverted to guerrilla warfare and have been targeting Somali government forces, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers almost daily.

The clashes have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed more than 6,000 people last year alone.