Security consultants say a foreigner gets kidnapped, on average,once every other month in the country, with ransom payments for their release reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

VOA: standard.2009.09.10

In initial reports, senior Somali military and police officials said a foreigner approached government soldiers near the Villa Somalia presidential palace in Mogadishu early Wednesday, identifying himself as one of the French men abducted by gunmen at the Sahafi Hotel last month.

VOA: standard.2009.08.26