(19 Apr 1998) Somali/Natsound

Somali kidnappers on Sunday threatened to kill 10 aid workers if their ransom of 100-thousand dollars is not paid in the next 24 hours.

The eight relief staff and two pilots were seized on Wednesday in the capital Mogadishu.

There has been no central government in Somalia since the 1991 civil war split the country into separate fiefdoms of warring clans.

The 10 hostages were seized at gunpoint minutes after their plane landed at an airstrip in north Mogadishu.

They include eight workers from Red Cross aid organisations - a naturalised American Somali, two Swiss, a Norwegian, a German, a Belgian, a French nurse and a Somali.

They are being held with two pilots from Kenya and South Africa.

A parcel of clothes, games and magazines has been sent by the Red Cross to the aid workers.

The hostages are being sent their meals and medical supplies from a war hospital run by the Somali Red Crescent.

It's believed the abductors are renegade members of Ali Mahdi's Abgal clan, which controls north Mogadishu.

Elders from the clan reported little progress in talks to try to secure the release of the captives.

It is hoped the faction leader Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and three other warlords, may have more success.

Unconfirmed reports indicate the kidnappers may be trying to use the captives as bargaining chips in talks among faction leaders to decide who will be Mogadishu's first postwar governor.

Several groups within the Abgal subclan are vying for the post.

But as well as hoping to gain political advantage from their hostages, the kidnappers are also demanding a ransom.

SOUNDBITE: (Somali and English translation)
"If our ransom is not paid in the next 24 hours, we will kill them all."
SUPER CAPTION: Kidnapper

The International Red Cross -- which supplies vital humanitarian aid to the war-torn nation -- has evacuated its remaining eight foreign staff as a result of the kidnappings.

The humanitarian body, together with the United Nations and the European Union, has also suspended all aid flights to the capital.

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