Somali gunmen kidnap senior U.N. aid worker

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali gunmen have kidnapped the local head of the U.N. refugee agency in Mogadishu in the latest abduction of aid workers in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, witnesses said on Sunday.

Ten assailants raided the home of Hassan Mohamed Ali -- a Somali who runs the agency's operations in the Mogadishu area -- in Elasha, 11 miles south of the capital on Saturday, residents said.

"They broke into his house after exchanging gunfire with his guards and took him with them," resident Farah Abdi told Reuters. "We see stains of blood in front of his house but we do not know who the kidnappers were and where he is held now."

Kidnapping is lucrative business in Somalia, with hostages generally treated well in anticipation of a large ransom.

Suspicion for kidnappings generally falls on clan militia and Islamist insurgents who are fighting the Somali government and their Ethiopian military allies.

Government officials and insurgent leaders could not be reached for comment on the latest abduction.

Gunmen are still holding hostage four foreign aid workers -- two Italians, a Kenyan, a Briton -- and another three Somalis abducted in April and May.

Mired in anarchy and awash with weapons since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia is off-limits for most foreign aid workers, and local staff face extreme risks by association.

Visiting Somali refugees in Kenya last week, U.N. refugee agency head Antonio Guterres said Somalia ranked with Sudan's Darfur region, Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan as the world's worst humanitarian crises.

One million of Somalia's 9 million people live as internal refugees, and their plight has been worsened by record food prices, hyper-inflation and drought.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Ibrahim Mohamed in Mogadishu; Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; Editing by Charles Dick)

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)