On 10 April, unidentified gunmen murdered two aid workers and their driver in a government controlled near Somalia’s Ethiopian border.

The gunmen killed the head of the Juba Community Care relief group, a colleague, and their driver as they were leaving town in their vehicle.

"Unidentified gunmen opened fire on their car as soon as they left for a trip to conduct surveys," Dahir Mohamed, one of their colleagues, said by phone from the region."We don't know who is behind the attack and the gunmen escaped after they killed the men," local elder Hasan Haji Idris said.

As with most attacks on aid workers in Somalia no group has claimed responsibility for the incident and the motive is unclear.

Source: Two Somali aid workers and their driver shot dead

Tags: Death of aid worker, Incident, Somalia

On 8 April, Sinnathurai Kugathasan, a staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed by artillery fire in northern Sri Lanka, according to a statement from the committee.

Kugathasan, who had been working for ICRC since 2002 as a water technician, was hit by an artillery shell and killed instantly while fetching water for his family in Ampalavanpokanai, in territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He is survived by his wife and three children.

Kugathasan is the third humanitarian worker to be killed by artillery fire in Sri Lanka this year. On 17 March, R. Sabesan of CARE International died from shrapnel wounds. On 4 March ICRC staffer Vadivel Vijayakumar was also killed in an artillery attack in the same area.

Tags: Death of aid worker, Sri Lanka, Incident

According to Pakistani television reports four aid workers with USAID funded Rise International were killed by gunmen in the Kund Bangla area of Shinkiary near Mansehra, Pakistan, on 6 April 2009. The gunmen fired upon the agency vehicle killing the three female staff. The body of their driver was found nearby.

The victims of the attack were identified as:

Sadaf Yar Muhammad - social mobiliser
Anjum Zeb - assistant education officer
Naeema Kausar - teacher
Saifullah - driver

According to a Rise International spokesman the four were returning to Mansehra from Kund Bangla when they were attacked. Their team had been in Kund Bangla to encourage local parents to send their children, especially girls, to school.

Although no culprits have been identified by police suspicion falls on Pakistani Taliban associated militants who object to education for girls. Conservative elements in the region object to the rapid pace of social change brought by NGOs and others since the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

Update: Local sources have indicated that Sadaf Yar Muhammad was the only victim working for Rise International. The other two women worked for the local education board. Local papers are now reporting that the incident may be the result of a domestic violence case.

Tags: Death of aid worker, Pakistan, Incident