NAIROBI, Oct 6 (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen shot and killed an award-winning Italian aid worker in the west of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, police and the territory's president said on Monday.
Annalena Tonelli, 60, was murdered late on Sunday in the Somaliland town of Borama, where she had devoted more than three decades of her life to helping Somali refugees.
Her body was flown to the Kenyan capital on a UN flight on Monday and was immediately taken to Nairobi's Lee Funeral Home.
"Relatives of Tonelli are expected to arrive in Nairobi on Tuesday to decide whether she should be buried in Kenya or repatriated to Italy," Italian embassy officials said.
UN High Commissioner for refugees Ruud Lubbers said in a statement he was distressed at the news of her death and paid tribute to her work among the poor in the past 30 years.
In June he conferred on her the Nansen Refugee Award, named after the Nobel peace prize winning Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who went on to do important international refugee work after World War I.
The accolade, which came with a 100,000-dollar cash award, is given annually by the United Nations refugee agency to individuals or organisations that distinguish themselves in helping refugees.
Three gunmen stormed Tonelli's house in Borama at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Sunday and shot her with a pistol. She died an hour later in hospital.
She has been running a 200-bed hospital in Borama and had set up outreach clinics to support her fight against tuberculosis among nomadic Somalis, and to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and the harmful effects of female genital mutilation.
After the killing, Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin vowed to AFP on telephome from the territory's capital, Hargeisa, that "no stone will be left unturned to identify and bring to justice those who murdered Tonelli," Police in Borama immediately went into action, searching some house there for the killers of Tonelli.
"Police also blocked main roads leading to neighbouring Djibouti and Ethiopia," a resident of Borama Abdi Abdullahi told AFP by telephone, adding police could be looking for particular people.
Another junior police officer told AFP a man had already been arrested and qestioned by the police over the killing.
"The police would qestion the man arrested early Monday morning, but it is not yet clear if he is among the killers of Tonelli or not," the officer, who declined to be named named told AFP by telephone from Borama.
Women and children, as well as elders, visited the hospital, which was founded by the slain Italian aid worker, witnesses said.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, became independent on June 26, 1960, but days later united with the Italian colony in the south to form the republic of Somalia.
It seceded from Somalia in May 1991, five months after late Somali strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown, plunging the Horn of Africa country into anarchy.
Somaliland is not recognised as an independent state by the international community despite having developed tools of statehood; currency, penal code, security forces and flag.
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