Italian businessman kidnapped in Mogadishu

The Somali paper Ayamaha issued in Mogadishu on Monday said that an Italian businessman was kidnapped in southern Mogadishu by a group of traders led by a former Somali minister of finance.

The paper reported that a group led by Gen. Muhammad Sheikh Othman seized Aldo Bonvantino as a hostage, accusing him of selling the group rotten foodstuffs that resulted in losses estimated at US $30,000.

Other sources said the traders had doubts in the Italian businessman to return back to his country before the arrival of a wheat shipment, for which he received payment, to Somalia.

The sources added that the Italian businessman who was kidnapped almost one week ago is most probably held in a hotel guarded by gunmen and that he was presented before an Islamic court in the southern part of the capital. The sources continued that negotiations continue to win the release of the Italian businessman and that the issue will be settled.