Kenyan security forces search near Liboi, Kenya’s border town with Somalia, where two Spanish aid workers were kidnapped from Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp on October 15, 2011. The aid workers were logistics officers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders).
Gunmen have kidnapped four foreign aid workers and one Kenyan national from the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, police say.
According to the Associated Press, the attackers ambushed a two-car convoy of aid workers near Kenya’s border with Somalia on Friday, but one of the cars managed to get away. Police officials told the news agency that the kidnappers were driving towards the Somali border.
Police sources told the Agence France Presse that a driver was killed in the attack. Regional deputy police chief Philip Ndolo told Reuters the foreign wokers were from Canada, Norway, the Philippines and Pakistan.
According to the BBC, the secretary general of Norwegian Refugee Council Elizabeth Rasmussen, was in one of the cars involved in an "incident", but was unharmed.
A number of aid workers have been adbucted from Dadaab in the last year, and many organizations have pulled out of the camp, which houses more than 450,000 Somalis.
More from GlobalPost: World's largest refugee camp overcrowded by Somali famine
Without federal support, local stations, especially in rural and underserved areas, face deep cuts or even closure. Vital public service alerts, news, storytelling, and programming like The World will be impacted. The World has weathered many storms, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to being your trusted source for human-centered international news, shared with integrity and care. We believe public media is about truth and access for all. As an independent, nonprofit newsroom, we aren’t controlled by billionaire owners or corporations. We are sustained by listeners like you.
Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World.