Six French aid workers kidnapped in Somalia

(CNN) -- Four aid workers and two pilots working for the French aid group Action Against Hunger were abducted Wednesday in the central Somali town of Dhusa Mareb, the organization said.

The group was traveling in a convoy to the airport in order to return to Nairobi, Kenya, when they were attacked, it said in a news release posted on its Web site.

"The attackers took away in a car the four Action Against Hunger employees and the two Kenyan pilots of the plane chartered by the European Commission," it said.

The group did not identify the nationalities of the four employees, only saying that they were non-Somalis.

Many aid groups have ceased operations in Somalia because of the threat of kidnappings and attacks.

Last month, gunmen shot and killed a staff member for the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) in southern Somalia. The killing was condemned by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The U.N. World Food Programme, which also provides relief to the famine-stricken and war-torn country, described Somalia as "one of the most dangerous places in the world" for aid workers.

Six people working for the WFP and its contractors have been killed in Somalia, including a staff member who was abducted and killed in mid-August along with his driver in southern Somalia.

Action Against Hunger, or Action Contre la Faim, has operated in Somalia since 1992 and currently employes 14 non-Somalis and 220 local employees at its three bases in Wajid, Dusamareeb and Mogadishu, as well as at its coordination base in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, is in the throes of an Islamic insurgency which is battling for control of the country and the ouster of Ethiopian forces.

A cease-fire between the some of the Islamic fighters and the Somali transitional government takes effect on Wednesday. The agreement was brokered by the United Nations and the African Union and signed late last month in Djibouti. It calls for Ethiopian forces -- who are supporting the transitional government forces -- to withdraw starting on November 21.

It is unclear if the cease-fire will hold. It has been rejected by Al Shaabab, one of the main Islamic insurgencies that is waging war in Somalia's capital.

Somalia's lawlessness also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms.

All About Somalia • Ban Ki-moon