Zimbabwean aid worker killed in Kenya

Zimbabwean aid worker killed in Kenya

• Mthulisi Mathuthu: The Zimbabwean traveller

UNKNOWN attackers killed a 37-year-old Zimbabwean staff member of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Lokichoggio, north-west Kenya, a spokesman said Friday.

The aid worker, identified as Silence Chirara, was ambushed Wednesday evening only 100 metres from a UN logistics camp, WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said in Nairobi.

The attackers had opened fire using a submachine-gun on a marked UN vehicle, seriously wounding Chirara. He later succumbed to his wounds and his killers managed to escape.

Chirara had been co-ordinating the logistics of the WFP aid in southern Sudan.

Lokichoggio is the starting point for most flights carrying aid to southern Sudan.

Chirara had worked for WPF since 1996 and was on missions in Iraq, Guinea Bissau, Indonesia and Zimbabwe.

The killing continued a series of attacks against foreign aid workers in the region.

On Thursday, the WFP disclosed that a driver of an aid transport for the WFP was shot dead at an illegal checkpoint in Somalia earlier this week.

Another WFP driver was killed in similar circumstances in February in southern Somalia. Workers for other aid organisations have also been victims of attacks.

Since early 2007, Islamic militias have led a guerrilla war on troops of the transitional government and its Ethiopian allies. - dpa
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