Somali hostage releases likely

The warlords are in touch with the hostage takers

A group of Somali warlords has said that the four aid workers being held in Mogadishu will be released soon.

The warlords said at a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that they are in touch with the kidnappers and that the hostages are safe and sound.

They said that logistical problems were holding up their release.

The four UN workers being held are two Britons, a Belgian and a French Algerian.

The hostages were abducted after gunmen belonging to one of Mogadishu's warlords, Musa Sudi Yalahow, attacked the offices of humanitarian organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres killing at least 12 Somalis.

MSF says it has now suspended operations in the Somali capital.

Five other foreign aid workers - including two Spaniards and a Briton - and a Somali national, who were trapped after the gun battle, were brought to safety on Wednesday morning.

MSF raid

President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan is struggling to impose his authority

All nine were working for a joint UN and WHO programme, vaccinating Somali children against polio.

Warlord Hussein Aidid, representing a group of faction leaders insisted that the hostages were being looked after by community elders in northern Mogadishu.

He said the council was afraid that the interim government, whom they consider to be illegitimate, may try to attack the aid workers to "discredit" the faction leaders and their new rival administration.

"We are presently making all logistical arrangements to ensure their safe exit out of Somalia.

"We have directly talking to the community and it is only because of the military movements of Salat's group that we are taking such extreme precautions to ensure their safety," Mr Aidid said.

"We want to hand them over directly to the international community and release them the same way the previous five were released," he said.

Foreign aid workers have been targeted before in Mogadishu by gunmen who see them as a lucrative source of foreign currency and negotiations for their release can sometimes be lengthy.

Central government?

The hostage taking underlines the problems faced by Somalia's new national government which was formed last year after months of peace negotiations.

Somalia was without a central government for almost a decade after President Muhammad Siad Barre was ousted in a coup in 1991.

The country was divided into a series of fiefdoms run by warlords and faction leaders.

A peace conference in Djibouti last year established a new central government and appointed Abdulkassim Salat Hassan as president.

The conference, however, was boycotted by many of the faction leaders including Musa Sudi Yalahow.

Those faction leaders have now come together to form the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) as a challenge to the government and have been meeting in Addis Ababa.