Mogadishu — Somali kidnappers freed the United Nations high commissioner for refugees' agency representative in Mogadishu who had been held hostage in the chaotic Horn of Africa country since July, officials said on Tuesday.

Hassan Mohamed Ali known as "Keynaan" was taken to Mogadishu hotel for rest.

No further details on Keynan's release are available.

Gunmen are still holding hostage foreign aid workers, several other Somali humanitarian staff and Journalists abducted earlier this year.

The kidnappings and attacks in Somalia are hampering the work of aid agencies at a time when U.N. officials say the crisis ranks as one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters along with Sudan's Darfur region, Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 1 million of Somalia's 9 million people scrape a living as internal refugees, and their plight has been worsened by record food prices, hyper-inflation and drought.

The insurgency has killed more than 8,000 civilians since the start of last year, according to a local human rights group.