UK police probe Somaliland deaths

A number of aid workers have been killed in Somaliland

UK police detectives are to visit Somaliland to help investigate the recent murders of international aid workers in the African territory.

A British couple, shot while teaching in the self-declared republic in October, were among those killed.

The UK ambassador to Ethiopia, Miles Wickstead, announced the move during a visit to Somaliland for a ceremony to honour its World War Two dead.

Somaliland says it has already brought in measures to protect foreign workers.

They include providing guards and asking them to inform authorities of their travel plans.

'Reputation for peace'

Richard Eyeington, 62, and his wife Enid, 61, were shot through the window of their flat at a secondary school in Sheikh, 140 kilometres (87 miles) north-east of Hargeisa, the region's capital.

Their deaths followed the murder of an award-winning Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli, 60, earlier in October in another part of Somaliland.

Enid and Richard Eyeington were killed on 20 October

Mr Wickstead said: "Somaliland has got a reputation for peace and people were shocked at the recent incidents.

"It is important to get to the bottom of these cases, see if they were related and if so who was behind that."

The Scotland Yard detectives will train police in Somaliland and help investigate the killings, he added.

The breakaway region's ruling administration has offered a $10,000 (£6,000) reward for information leading to the capture of the British couple's killers.

The Foreign Office advises against all travel to southern Somalia and to the Sool and Sanaag parts of Somaliland.