Somali kidnappers release UN official

NAIROBI - Kidnappers freed the head of the UN refugee agency's office in Somalia yesterday but rising insecurity forced Doctors Without Borders to close a clinic in Mogadishu that provided essential health care to hundreds of women and children.

The capital of Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers to operate. More than 8,000 civilians have been killed in fighting in the Horn of Africa nation since the start of last year.

In a rare piece of good news, gunmen yesterday freed Hassan Mohammed Ali, a Somali who was in charge of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees local office, after holding him captive for more than two months. He was reported in good health.

But Doctors Without Borders said the risks to its patients and staff were now unacceptable and it was closing the clinic.

"The closure comes following a further deterioration of the situation in the area where the clinic is located," the relief organization said in a statement issued in neighboring Kenya.

In May and June of this year the center had been treating an average of 300 out-patients and 35 in-patients each day.