UK charity worker held in Somalia

The Somali was later released.

Local resident Moalim Bashir said he did not know who had taken the two men on Thursday night from the town of Adado, near the border with Ethiopia.

He said tensions in the town were high as a militia was massing to the south and might attempt to try to take the town from those currently in control.

The Somali man was later released and communicated with his family, said an official who is working to resolve the incident. He asked not to be named.

A friend of the kidnapped Briton described him as an avid skier and mountaineer who once lived in Canada and had worked for humanitarian organisations for several years.

Several forces have gunmen in the area, including pirate gangs and factions of militias allied to the government. The area was considered to be a safer part of Somalia and some aid agencies, which have mostly pulled out of the chaotic country, were considering returning.

"Save the Children was assessing the feasibility of starting up a humanitarian programme to help malnourished and sick children and their families in the area. We are extremely concerned about the welfare of those being held and urgently call upon whoever is holding them captive to release them unconditionally," the organisations said in a statement.

Save the Children has been working in Somalia for more than 40 years, with a focus on improving access to food, basic healthcare and education.

The charity is largely based in the central Hiran region, Karkaar in the north east and in the Togdheer region of Somaliland.

Its work has been limited by the security situation but this year it began to pool resources with two other branches of the International Save the Children Alliance – Denmark and Finland – to become a unified presence in the country.

Yesterday, the Foreign Office said it was investigating the reports of the kidnap.

After years of lawlessness and violence, Somalia has become a place most foreigners choose to avoid even though the western part of the country had been considered one of its safer areas.

Somalia has developed very slowly since its creation in 1960, after a former UK protectorate was merged with an Italian colony.

The country descended into turmoil, factional fighting and anarchy following the collapse of President Siad Barre's socialist regime in 1991.

Warlords now run swathes of the territory which has been been beset by famine and without an effective central government most of those 20 years.

One of the world's poorest countries, it has endured a lengthy humanitarian crisis and up to a third of its population now depends on food aid.

As many as a million people are thought to have died during years of long-running battles between rival clans.

The instability was more recently exacerbated by the rise of insurgents affiliated with al-Qaida.

Islamist militia and a UN-backed transitional government currently compete for control and relations with its neighbours – Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti – are strained.

Several forces have gunmen in the area, including pirate gangs and factions of militias allied to the government.

Kidnapping for ransom has become common as the long-standing absence of authority has also led to an increase in piracy, threatening international shipping in the Indian Ocean.

The multi-million-pound ransoms demanded are one of the few ways to make money in the impoverished country although the hostages are rarely hurt and people are usually freed after ransoms are paid.