Mogadishu — A U.N. food agency spokesman says unknown gunmen have killed a Somali staff member of the UNICEF in southwestern Somalia on Sunday night.

World Food Program official who declined to reveal his name told Shabelle that the aid worker whose name Engineer Moqtar Mohamed Hassan was shot three times in the town of Hudur of Bakol region.

He said they "shocked and saddened" by the loss. He said the killing "underlines what a dangerous place Somalia is."

So far this year, 13 aid workers, including two foreigners, have been killed in Somalia. Violence against aid workers has dramatically increased this year in the Horn of Africa nation.