Mogadishu, July, 18, 2009, 9:57 AM-ET (SOMINA)-Somali militiamen have kidnapped three foreign aid workers from inside Kenya crossing into the lawless country, officials and elders said Saturday.

The three believed to have been working for the international aid agency (Action Against Hunger) and were snatched from their compound in Mandera district, in north-eastern Somali region of Kenya.

“The three aid workers were kidnapped overnight around 11:30 PM (Eats African time) and their captors crossed into Somalia”, a local Islamist official in neighboring Somalia region of Gedo said in condition of anonymity.

Local elders in the district of Luq in Gedo region said they spotted the militants with their hostages near the district.

“Some people saw heavily armed militants onboard pick up trucks with three foreign hostages one of them a white man, they stayed near Luq early this morning”, Mohamed Abdulahi, an elder in the region said.

Several other witnesses also saw the hostages being taken towards Somalia.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for the aid workers and journalists to work, with dozens of aid workers and journalists kidnapped in the country in the past several months.

MB-MF-/MA