Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Hussein Farah Aideed, chairman of the newly formed Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) Thursday said the body was doing its best to fly four abducted aid workers out of Mogadishu.

Aideed said two Britons and two Belgians seized last Tuesday in an armed attack on the headquarters of Medecins sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) in the Somali capital, were now in safe hands.

He blamed the incident on the transitional Somali government of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, which was formed at a reconciliation conference held in Arta, Djibouti eight months ago.

At a press conference, Aideed affirmed that the British and Belgian hostages were in "safe" hands "under the protection of community leaders."

He maintained that the said leaders "are our supporters" and that their area in Mogadishu "are within our sphere of influence."

Aideed said "we are taking every security precaution to move the aid workers to the airport and fly them safely to Nairobi," adding that contacts had been made with the UNDP office in Nairobi, Kenya, for arrangements fly the four out of Mogadishu "at the opportune moment."

Aideed intimated that the armed attack on the MSF Mogadishu headquarters was a calculated move to jeopardise the lives of aid workers and blame the act on faction leaders opposed to what he said was the self-proclaimed and unrepresentative government in Somalia.

The establishment of the SRRC was announced by Aideed a week ago in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia following two weeks of consultations by leading Somali factions, at the town of Awassa, 245 km south of Addis Ababa with the objective of preparing "an all-inclusive" national reconciliation conference within Somalia within six months.

Aideed reiterated that the SRRC "is not a government, but an interim authority" to prepare and facilitate the convening of a national reconciliation conclave within six months to come up with "a legitimate transitional representative government of national unity."